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Maps, plates, charts, etc., mey be filmed et different reduction retlos. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hend corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many fremee es rsquired. The following diegrems illustrste the method: Les csrtes, plenches, tebleeux, etc., peuvent itre fllmis A des teux de reduction diff Arents. Lorsque le document est trop grend pour Atre reproduit en un seul clichA, 11 est filmA A pertir de I'engle supArieur geuche, de gauche A droite, et de heut en bes, en prenent le nombre d'imeges nAcesselre. Les diagrammes sulvents lllustrsnt is mAthode. 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 MENTAL AND SOCIAL CONDITION OF SAVAGES. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. PRE-IIISTORIC TIMES, r.s must rated by Ancient Remains and tho Mnnncra nnd rustoms nf Modem Savages. Fcnirtli Edition, 1878. (WilUanig ami Nnrgate.) MONOORAPH OF THE COLLEMBOLA AND TIIY- SANURA. 1871. (lUy Society.) ON THE ORIOIN AND METAMORPHOSES OF INSECTS. With IlluRtratio;is. Second Edition, 1874. Crown 8to. 3i. M. (Maomillan ii Co.) ON BRITISH WILD FLOWERS CONSIDERED IN HKLATTON TO INSECTS. WRh IlliiRtratlong. Second Edition, lb75. Crown 8vo. 4«. 6(/. (Macniillan & Co.) ADDRESSES, POLITICAL AND EDUCATIONAL, 187i». (Mocmillan & Co.) SCIENTIFIC LECTURES. 1879. (Macmillan & Co.) ns 3a, »l ■•^"-^if, v^ TlIK OKIGIN OF CIVILISATION AND TlIK PRIMITIVE CONDITION OF MAN. MEXTAL mvl SOCIAL CONHITION of SAVACES. BY Sir JOHN LUBBOCK, Bart. M.P. F.R.S. D.C.L. LL.D. PIlRSinKNT OF THE IIRITISIl ASSOCIATION I'llRSinKST Or- TlIK MNXEAN KOCIRTY : l'RK>IDBNT OP TlIK IXHTITITM OP BANKI: 1!S ; AIIIII'II OV 'I'lll.lllHToniC IIMKS' KTC. : noNdUAItY HKCHKTAHY m IIIK i^XDoS iia.vkkiih: kellow ok thk soc. op antiqcauiks ; op TUB OEOUiaiCAI,, KNTOMOI.OOICAI, AVP OTIIGn HDCIirril'.S, FOURTH edition, WITH NUMEROUS ADDITIONS. LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1882. lONtKlN I PniNTRn BY IPOTTlmVOOI.K AM. .0.. NRW-RTHRIT HQI-AIir A.NU i'AUUAMEMT NTUKKT 4 ViiK FACE. TN my work on 'Prehistoric Times' I have devoted -*■ several cl>ai)tcr8 to the description ol* modern savaj^es, because the weapons and imj)lcments now used by the lower races of men tlirow miicli li<^ht on th(^sig. nitication and use of those discovered in ancient tunudi, or in the drift gravels ; and because a knowledge of modern savages and their modes of life enables us njore accurately to picture, and more vividly to conceive, the manners and customs of our ancestors in ])ygone ages. In the present volume, which is founded on a course of lectures delivere> at thv^ Royal Institution in the spring of l.SfJS, I proj)ose more particularly to describe the social and mental condition of savages, their art, their systems of marriage and of relationship, their re- ligions, language, moral character, and laws. Subse- quently I shall hope to publish those portions of my lectures which have reference to their houses, dress, boats, armSj implements, &c. Froui the very nature of the subjects dealt with in the prcr^ent volume, I shall have to record many actions imd ideas v(;ry abhorrent to vi PREFACE. us ; so many, in fact, that if I pass them without com- ment or condemnation, it is because I am reluctant to fatigue the reader by a wearisome iteration of disap- proval. In the chapters on Marriage and Religion more especially, though I have endeavoured to avoid everything that was needlessly offensive, still it was impossible not to mention some facts which are very repugnant to our feelings. Yet were I to express my sentiments in some cases, silence in others might be held to imply indifference, if not approval. Montesquieu * commences with an apology that por- tion of his great work which is devoted to Religion. As, he says, ' on peut juger parmi les tenebres celles qui sont les moins epaisses, et parmi les abimes ceux qui sont les moins profonds, ainsi Ton peut chercher entre les religions fausses celles qui sont les plus con- formes au bien de la society ; celles qui, quoiqu'elles n'aient pas I'effet de mener les liommes aux felicites de Tautre vie, peuvent le plus contribuer k leur bonheur dans celle-ci. Je n'examinerai done les diverses religions du monde que par rapport au bien que Ton en tire dans I'^tat civil, soit que je parle de celle qui a sa racine dans le ciel, ou bien de celles qui ont la leur sur la terre.' The difficulty which I have felt has taken a different form, but I deem it necessary to say these few words of explanation, lest I should be supposed to approve that which I do not expressly condemn. ' * Esprit des Lois,' liv. xxiv. ch. 1. PREFACE. ▼U I Klemm, in his 'Allgcmeine Culturgeschiclite der Menschen/ and recently Mr. Wood, in a more popular manner ( ' Natural History of Man '), have described the various races of man consecutively ; a system which has its advantages, but which does not well bring out the general stages of progress in civilisation. Various other works, amongst which I must specially mention Midler's * Geschichte der American- ischen Urreligionen,' M'Lennan's * Primitive Marriage,' and Bachofen's * Das Mutterrecht,' deal with particular portions of the subject. Maine's interesting work on 'Ancient Law,' again, considers man in a more advanced stage than that which is the special subject of my work. The plan pursued by Tylor in his remarkable work on the ' Early History of Mankind ' more nearly re- sembles that which I have sketched out for myself, but the subject is one which no two minds would view in the same manner, and is so vast that I am sure my friend will not regard me as intruding upon a field which he has done so much to make his own. Nor must I omit to mention Lord Karnes' ' History of Man,' and Montesquieu's ' Esprit des Lois,' both of them works of great interest, although written at a time when our knowledge of savage races was even more inij^erfect than it is now. Yet the materials for such a work as the present arc immense, and are daily increasing. Those who take Vlll PBEFACE. an interest in the subject become every year more and more numerous ; and while none of my readers can be more sensible of my deficiencies than I am myself, yet, after ten years of study, I have been anxious to publish this portion of my work, in the hope that it may con- tribute something towards the progress of a science which is in itself of the deepest interest, and which has a peculiar importance to an empire such as ours, com- prising races in every stage of civilisation yet attained by man. High Elms, Down, Keni: February 1870. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. Importance of the Subject — Difficulty of the Subject — Inactivity of the Savage Intellect — Condition of the Lowest Races of Men — Curious Customs with reference to Mothers-in-Law — La Couvade — Reasons for La Couvade — Savage Ideas on the Influence of Fond — Curious Ideas with reference to Portraits — Use of Prayers as Medicine — Savage Ideas of Disease — Medical Treatment among Savages — Fancies about Twins — Life attributed to Inanimate Ob- I'AUK jects — Salutat ions CHAPTER II. ART AND ORNAMENTS. Art as an Ethnological Character — Ancient Art — Art in Africa — Esqui- maux Drawings — The Quippu — Picture-writing — Indian Census Roll — Indian Tombstones — Picture-writing in North America — Indian Biography — Indian Petition — Rock Sculptures — Savage Ornaments — Cheek Studs — Labrets — Ornamentation of the Skin — Tribe Marks — Tattooing — Artificial Alteration of Form — Ilairdress- ing — Feejee Head-dresses 41 CHAPTER HI. MARRIAGE AND RELATIONSHIP. 'i The Position of Women among Savages — Absence of Affection in Marriage — Absence of Marriage — Relationship among Savages — Different Kinds of Marriage — Polyandry — Separation of Husband and Wife — Absence of Marriage Ceremony — Marriage Ceremonies — Relationships Independent of Marriage — South Sea System of Relationship — Toda System of Relationship — Prevalence of Adoption — The Milk-tie — Original or Communal Marriage — Origin of Mar- CONTENTS. TAUB II- VI ! riflge — Uachofen's Views — AVrestling for Wives — M'Lennan's Views — The True Explanation — Origin of JMurriagu by Capture — Pre- valence of Marriage by Capture — Originally a Ileality — Subsequently a Form — Ilindostan — ( Antral India — Malay Peninsula — Kalmucks — Tonguses — Kamchadales — Mongols — Koreans — Esquimaux — Nort li and South Americans — Feejeeans — Polynesians — Philippine Islanders— Negritos — Africa — Circassians — Europe— Kome — Poland — Russia — Britain — Explanation of Marriage Ceremonies — Marriage by Confarreatio — Expiation for Marriage — Babylonia — Armenia — Balearic Islands — Temporary Wives— Exogamy — Origin of Ex- ogamy — Prevalence of Exogamy — Australia — Africa — Ilindostjm — Northern Asia — China — (Mrcassia — North America — South America — The Causes of Polygamy — Polyandry — Polyandry Exceptional— The System of Levirate— Endogamy— The Milk-tie — Ili'lationship through Females — Causes and Wide Distribution of the Custom — Neglect of Paternal Relation — Origin of Relationship in the Male Line — (Miange from Female to Male Kinship — System of Kinship through Males— The Present System . . . .72 CHAPTER IV. RELATIONSHIPS. On the Development of Relationships — Different Systems of Relation- sliips — Chjssifioation of Systems — Nature of the Evidence — Custom of addressing Persons by their Relationship — Similarities of System among the Lower Races — Malayans — Feejeeans — Redskins — Nomen- clature of Relationships — Eflect of Female Kinship on Systems of Relationship — The Hawaiian System — American Systems — Import- ance of the Mother's Brother in the Family System — The Micniac System — Burmese and Japanese Systems — The Wyandot System — Tlie Tamil and Feejoean Systems — Remarkable Terms in Use — l<]xplanation of the Terms — System of the Oneidas — Otawas — The Kaflir System — Mohegans — Crees — Chippewas — Summary of Red- f>kiu Systems — Hindoo Systems — Karens —Esquimaux — Remarkable Similarities — Indications of Progress — Incompleteness of Systems — J"]xi.sting Systems Incompatible with the Theory of Degradation — Evidence of Progress — No Evidence of Degradation — Conclusion 157 CHAPTER V. KELKilON. Mental Inactivity of Savages — Religious ( 'liaracterijtics of Savages — Religious < Miaracteristios of the Lower Races of Man — ClnssiHcation of the Lower Religions — Religions according to Sanchoniatlio — Reli- gious ( 'ondition of the Lowest Races — Absence of Religion— Rudi- CONTENTS. XI rAUB incntnry Religions — Religious Ideas as suggested by Sleep — Reli- gious Ideas as suggested by Dreams — Nightmare — Shadows — Thunder — Spirits regarded as Kvil — Spirits regarded as causing Disease — Madness reverenced — Belief in Witchcraft — Disbelief among Savages in the Existence of Natural Death — Low Ideas of Spirits entertained by Savages — Greek and Itoman Conceptions — Savage Ideas as to Eclipses — Various Notions as to Eclipses — Belief in Ghosts — Future Life dependent on Mode of Death — Belief in the Plurality of Souls — Divination — Sorcery — Confusion of Name and Thing — Confusion of Part and Whole — Similarity of Witchcraft — Wizards — Belief in Witchcraft shared by European Travellers — Sorcerers not necessarily Impostors — Fasting — Religious Dances — Sniokiug as a Religious (.'eremony — Intoxication as a Religious Rite 20U CHAPTER VI. RELIGION (continued). Animal Worship — Origin of Animal Worship — The Kobong — The Totem — Totemism in America — Totems in India and Polynesia — Ser- pent-Worship — Serpent- Worship in Asia — Africa — Guinea — \Miy- dah — Agoye the Fetich of Whydah — Kaffraria — Madagascar — Polynesia — America — The Worship of other Animals — Polynesia — Sandwich Islands — Feejee Islands — Siberia — China — India — Ceylon — The Philippines — Africa — Madagascar — Europe — The Custom of ■ Apologising to Animals for hilling them — The Worship of the Celestial Bodies — Savage Tendency to Deification — Deities not sup- posed to be Supernatural — Life attributed to Inanimate Objects — Souls attributed to Inanimate Objects — Tree-AVorship in Europe— I'^ypt — Arabia — Congo — India — Ceylon — Hill Tribes of India — Sil^eria — Sumatra — Philippines — Feejeeans — North America — Mexico — Peru — Patagonia — Water- Worship — Europe — Siberia — India — Africa — North America — Central America — The Worship of Stones — Attiibutes of the God Mercury — Siberia — Ilindostan — New Zealand — ^The Arabians — Phosuicians iu Europe — Africa — Polynesia — Feejee Islands — Micronesia — America — Fire-AVorship — Vestals — Asia — America — Africa — Sun and Moon Worship — America — India — Asia — Africa — Sundry Worships 207 CHAPTER VII. RELIGION (conchtded). Religion of Australians — Veddahs — Californians — Bachapins — Kaffirs — Fetichism — Hindostan — Negroes — Fetichism in other Races ■ — North America — ("hiiia — Siberia —Africa — Totemism — Develop- mental and Adaptational Modifications of Religion — Myths — 8ha» XII CONTENTS. PAOR I luanuni in Siberia — Greenland — Pacific Islands — Africa — India — Idolatry — Origin of Idolatry — Connection with tbe Worship of An- cestors — India — Africa — Polynesia — Siberia — Solomon's Explana- tion — Idols not Mere Emblems — Worship of Men — Worship of Chiefs — Worship of Travellers — The Worship of Principles — Sacritices — Confusion of the Victim with the Deity — Worship of tlie Sacrifice — Eating the Sacrifice— Human Sacrifices — Europe — America — The Jews — Temples — Priests — Mystery Men — The Soul — Ideas of Heaven — The Future State — Creation— Prayer — Morality — The Progress of Religion — Science and Religion .... 321 CHAPTER VIII. CHARACTER AND MORALS. Difficulty of ascertaining the Character of Savage Races — Insecurity of Life and Property among Savages — Progress in Morals — Moral (Condition of Savages — Confusion of Family Affection and Moral Feeling — Absence of Moral Feeling — Religion not necessarily con- nected with Morality — Futur Life not necessarily one of Pimish- raent or Reward — Rank in Heaven — Law and Right — Growth of Moral Feeling — Origin of Moral Feeling 38b CHAPTER IX. LANGUAGE. Gesture Language — The Origin of Language — All Language reducible to a Few Root- words — Origin of Root-words — Onomatopoeia — Wear and Tear of Words — Nicknames and Slang Terms — Origin of the Terms Father and Mother — Words for Father and Mother in various Languages — The Choice of Root-word" — Poverty of Savage Lan- guages — Deficiency in Termsof Affection — Absence of Abstract Terms — Deficiency in Numerals — Savage Difficulties in Arithmetic — Use of tlio Fingers in Arithmetic, as shown in the Names of Numerab — The Origin of the Decimal System 411 CHAPTER X. LAWS. Importance of the Subject — Savage Laws not founded on the Family — Tyranny of Fashion among Savages — Tyranny of Custom among Savages — Superstitious Customs — Rules relating to Legal Cere- monies and Contracts — Court Language — Gradations of Rank — Salu- tations and Ceremonies — Conduct of Public Business — Property in CONTENTS. Xlll IMlIK Land — Oomimmal Propi'rty — T^aws of Inhoritanco — Absence «>l' Wills— l{(.nmn WillH— lli-rlita of r'bildron— Tho Va-su t'ustoni of naming Parents after Children — I^aws of Inhevitanee — The Punish- ment of Oime — Regulated llovengo — The Lawstif Prop»irty — Mani- fest and Non-Manifest Thieves — The Wergild — General Conclusion M.S APPENDIX. PART i. DilFiculty of obtaining Conclusive Evidence — The Stationary Condi- tion of Savages — No Evidence of Earlier Civilisation — Evidence derivable from Domestic Animals and Pottery — Indications of Prtv gress among Savages — Savages not Incapable of Civilisation — In- digenous Origin of Mexican Civilisation — Progress as indicated by Language — Traces of Barbarism in (Jivilised Countries — Arbitrary Customs — Unity of the Human Race — Mental Differences in the Different Races 481 FART II. The Weapons of Monkeys — True Nature of Barbarism — Sequence of Customs — The Diffusion of Mankind — The Influence of External (^'onditions — The Esquimaux — Original and Universal Barbarism — Supposed Inevitability of Degradation — Supposed Evidence of De- gradation — The Survival of Customs — Progress of Religious Ideas — Fetichism — Totemism — Idolatry — The True Theory of the Four Ages — Evidence from Crossed Races — Similarity existing between Savages and Children — Language of Savages — Tendency to Redu- plications — Ancient Caremonies and Modern Games — Development of the Individual, and that of the Species 4J)0 NOTES INDEX 625 !»; ii HlV' ILLUSTRATIONS. ■*©•- DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. PI.ATF FrontispircR— ViRW OF StONEHENaE. FrotD an original drawing by M. Griset To face Title I. Sketch of Mammoth, on n piece of ivory, fuund in the Rock- sheltor at La Madeleine, in the Dordogno . . . To face II. Fkejefjin Modes of Drkssiko the Hair. After Williams. 'Fiji and the Fijians,' p. 158 To face PAOR 41 69 III. Indian Sacred Stones. After Forbes Leslie. ' Early Races of Scotland,' vol. ii. p. 464 To face 304 IV. A Human Sacrifice in Tahiti. After Cook . . To face .366 V. Qrocf of Sacred Stones in the Dbkhan. After Forbes Leslie. •Early Races of Scotland,' vol. ii. p. 460 . . . To face 370 DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES. no. 1, Group of Reindeer. From a photograph presented to me by M. lo Marquis do Vibraye 42 2-4. Drawings on Esquimaux Bone Dbillbotvs. Presented to the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, by Captain Bcechey . . 43 5. North American Inutan Census Roll. After Schoolcraft. ' His- tory of the Indian Tribes,' vol. ii. p. 222 ^tQ 6. Indian Gravepost. After Schoolcraft. 'History of the Indian Tribes,' vol. i. p. 356 61 7. Indian Gravkpost. After Schoolcraft. ' History of the Indian Tribes,' vol. i. p. 356 51 •ml' xvi USr OF ILLUSTRATIONS. KID. PA(IK H. IxniAV Hauk liKTTun. After Soh(X)Icraft. • History .^f the Indian TribcM,' vol. i. p. 338 Tt'l t). Indian IUhk Lkttku. After Schoolcraft. 'History of tlio Indian Tribes; vol. i. p. 330 64 10. IvDiAN IhooRAriiv. After Schoolcraft. 'History of the Indian Tribus,' vol. i. p. 330 63 11. Indian Pktition. After ychooicruft. 'History of the Indian Triljes.'vol. i. p. 416 50 12. Cabolinb Islakdkr. After Freycinct. ' Voyage autour du Monde,' pi. 67 07 13. New Zealand Head. After Freycinot. ' Voyage autour du Monde,' pi. 107 68 14. New Zealand Head. After Freycinet. ' Voyage autour du Monde,' pi. 107 68 16-17. SHoni.DER-nLADEs PHKPAUED FOB DiviNATioN. After Klcmm. 'AH. Cultur. d. Mens,' vol. iii. p. 200 238 18. A Sacred Dance of the Viroinians. Lafitau, vol. ii. p. 136 . 264 19. AooYE. An Idol OF Wi 'DDAU. Astley's ' Col. of Voyugps/ vol. iii. p. 60 268 20. Sacbed Stones. Feejee lilands. Williams, loc. cit. vol. i. p. 220 . 310 I I < LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL WOPvKS QUOTED IN THIS VOLUME. • 238 • 254 1. iii. 268 20 . 310 Atlchmg, MitliridiitcB. Allen and ThoniHoii, Expod. to tlio Wivov Niger. Arivgo, Niirrativo of a Voyage round the World. ArbuusHi't and Dminias. Tour at tlio Cijio ot Good JIopo. A.siiilii! Itfsertrclirs. Astlcy, Colli'ction of Voynpfos. Atkinson, Oritiital and Western Silieria. „ I'pp'T anil Lower A moor. Azara, Voyages dans rAniuri(^ue Ale- ridionulc. Kachofen, Diis Mnttorrocht. Jfaikit!, Kxploring Voyage up the Ilivors Kwora and I3inue. Bain, Mental and Moral Suionco. 13akcr, Albert Nyanza. „ Nile Trilnitarios of Abyssinia. I'ancroft, Native IIjiccs of Pacific States. Uarth, Travels in Central Africa. IJattel, The Strange Adventures of (Pin- kerton's Voyages and Travels), Eeechey, Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific. liDsman, Description of Guinea (Pin- kerton's Voyages and Travels). Jlrutt, Indian Tribes of Guiana, J'rouke, Liipland. ]>ruce. Travels in Aby.«sinia. lUircliill, Trave' i in Southern Africa. Uurton, Lake Regions of Africa. „ I'^irst Footsteps in Africa. „ Abbeokuta and the Camuroii Mountains, „ City of the Saints. „ Mission to the King of Dahonie. Caillie, Travels to Timbnctoo, Callaway, Religious System of the Aniazulu. Campbell, Tales of the West Highlands. „ Wild Tribes of Khoudistan. CarviT, Travels in North America. Casjilis, The Uasutos. Catlin, North .Vmurican Indians. Chapman, Travels in S. Africa. Charlevoix, History of Paraguay. Clarke, Travels. Collins, Knglish Colony in New South Wales. Cook, Voyage round the World. (In Ifawkos worth's Voyages.) „ Second Voyage towards the South Pob.>. „ Thiol Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Cox, Manual of Mythology, Crantz, History of Greenland. Drtlton, Descriptive Ethnology of IJengal. Dalzel, Hist, of Dahomy. Darwin, Animals and Plants nnder Domestication. „ Origin of Species. „ Researches in Geology and Natural History. Davis (Dr. J. R), Thesaurus Craniorum. Davis, The Chinese. Davy, .Vccount of Ceylon. Dcane, Worship of the Serpent traced throughout the World. De Brusses, Du Culle des Dieux fetiches. Do Hell, Steppes of the Caspian Sea. Denham, Travels in Africa. i XVUI LIST OF WORKS QUOTED. \ «rti Th-pond, Tri'voltt in PftutJi Amorii'u. ]*iiiN, Dio-iiiiiariu (lii LiiiKOii Tu|iy. !>i<'ffriilmc|i, New Zualiiml. l» itod BtatoK )n. vy. IvingJom of 'iHcovory in 0. Nui-tbcrn lioa. iiiry of the gtingeH uf siu. Bengal. Anciont ty Moun- Suutheru on. liiwlago. cschiclite 1. of Good Kcillf. Voyupo nf tlio ' Duurgii,* K;, their requirements, their very weaknesses and preju- dices are known, and furnish a basis for those political inductions which, under the titles of administrative foresight and timely reform, meet popular movements half-way. The East India Company grudged neither honours nor solid rewards to any meritorious effort to illustrate the peoples whom it ruled.' ' The practical result now appears. English ad- ministrators understand the Aryan, and are almost totally ignorant of the non-Aryan, population of India. They know with remarkable precision how a measure will be received by the higher or purely Aryan ranks of the community ; they can foresee with less certainty its effect upon the lower or semi- Aryan classes, but they neither know nor venture to predict the results of any line of action among the non-Aryan tribes. Political calculations are impos- sible withou c a knowledge of the people. But the evil does not stop here. In the void left by ignorance, prejudice has taken up its seat, and the calamity of ^ Non- Aryan Languages of India, p. 2. I <3 DIFFICULTY OF TUB SUBJECT. t ' tlie noil -Aryan races is not merely that they are not ' understood, but that they are misrepresented.' Well, therefore, has it been observed by Sir Henry Maine, in his excellent work on * Ancient Law,' that, even if they gave more trouble than they do, no painr would be wasted in ascertaining the germs out of which has assuredly been unfolded every form of moral restramt which controls our actions and shapes our conduct at the present moment. The rudiments of the social state,' he adds, ' so far as they are known to us at all, are known through testimony of three sorts — accounts by contemporary observers of civilisa- tions less advanced than their own, the records which particular races have preserved concerning their primi- tive history, and ancient law. The first kind of evi- dence is the best we could have expected. As societies do not advance concurrently, but at different rates of progress, there have been epochs at which men trained to habits of methodical observation have really been in a position to watch and describe the infancy of mankind.' ^ He refers particularly to Tacitus, whom he praises for having ' made the most of such an oppor- tunity; ' adding, however, ' but the " Germany," unlike most celebrated classical books, has not induced others to follow the excellent example set by its author, and the amount of this sort of testimony which we possess is exceedingly small.' This is, however, I think, far from being really the case. At all epochs some ' men trained to habits of ' methodical observation have really been in a position ' to watch and describe the infancy of mankind,' and ' Maine's Ancient Law, p. 120, i I f I MENTAL COKDITTON OF SAVAaES. are not ' Henry i^,' that, 10 painr out of brm of shapes iiments known >f three iivilisa- 3 which ■ primi- of evi- ocieties ates of trained y been ncy of whom oppor- unlike others and •r •ossess ly the jits of sition ,' and the testimony of our modern traveUcrs is of the same nature as that for which we are indebted to Tacitus. It must, however, be admitted that our information with reference to the social and moral condition of the lower races of man is certainly very far from being satisfactory, either in extent or in accuracy. Travellers naturally find it far easier to describe the houses, boats, food, dress, weapons, and implements of savages, than to understand their thoughts and feelings. The whole mental condition of a savage is so different from ours, that it is often very difficult to follow what is passing in his mind, or to understand the motives by which he is influenced. Many things appear natural and almost self-evident to him, which produce a very different im- pression on us. ' What ! ' said a negro to Burton, ' am ' I to starve, while my sister has children whom she can 'sell?' When the natives of the Lower Murray first saw pack oxen, some of them were frightened and took them for demons ' with spears on their heads,' while others thought they were the wives of the settlers, because they carried the baggage.^ Though savages always have a reason, such as it is, for what they do and what they believe, their reasons often are very absurd. Moreover, the difficulty of ascertaining what is ^^assing in their minds is of course much enhanced by the difficulty of communicating with them. This has produced many laughable mis- takes. Thus, when Labillardiere enquired of the Friendly Islanders the word for 1,000,000, they seem to have thought the question absurd, and answered him ' Taplin, The Narinyeri, p. 53. i v* 8 ERRORS ARISING FROM iifi l)y a word wliich ai)piirently lias no iiicaniiied, lest, rre ; the coating •act; the like the ^ch spots f' is also reeching And i ol' Guiaua, 1 '4 .1 I :i ■■«■ again : — ' On the birth of a child, the ancient Indian ' etiquette requires the fatlier to take to his hammock, * where he remains some days as if he were sick, and ' receives the congratulations and condolence of his ' friends. An instance of this custom came under my • own ol'servation, where the man, in robust health 'and excellent condition, without a single bodily ' ailment, wa^^ lyi^ig in ^^^ hammock in the most ' provoking manner, and carefully and respectfully at- ' tended by the women, while the mother of the new- ' born infant was cooking — none apparently regarding 'her!'^ Similar statements have been made by various other travellers, including De Tertre, Giliz, Biet, Fcrmin, and in fact almost all who have written on the natives of South America. In North America, Bancroft mentions the existence of a similar custom among the natives of California and New Mexico. Remy states that among the Shoshones, Avhen ? woman is in labour, the husband ' also is bound to remain in seclusion, away from every ' one, even from his wife' '^ In Greenland, after a woman is confined, the ' husband must forbtar workinij 'for some weeks, neither must they drive any ti'ade ' during that time ; ' ^ in Kamskatka, for some time before the birth of a baby, the husband must do no hard Avork. In South India, Mr. Tylor^ quotes Mr. F. W. Jennings as stating that among natives of the higher castes about Madras, Seringapatam, and on the i t ' Rrett, /or, cU. p. 101. '^ Egede's Greenland, p. 190. City, p. 120. ' Tylor's Early History of Man, ^ Journey lo the Great Salt Lake :ind ed., p. 301. 18 REASON FOR LA COUVADE. 15 ^:t Malabar Coast ' a man, at the birth of his first son or ' (laughter by the chief Avife, or for any son afterwards, ' will retire to bed for a lunar month, living principally on a rice diet, abstaining from exciting food and from ' smoking.' In Fiji also, when a child is born, the father, as well as the mother, is careful to abstain from eat- ing anything which might disagree with the infant. Similar notions occur aniong the Chinese of West Yunnan, among the Dyaks of Borneo, in Madagascar, or the west coast of Africa, among the Kaffirs, in the north of Spain, in Corsica, and in the south of France, where it is called ' faire la couvade.' While, however, 1 regard this curious custom as of much ethnological interest, I cannot agree with Mr. Tylor in regarding it as evidence that the races by whom it is practised belong to one variety of the human species.^ On the contrary, I believe tl\at it originated independently in several distinct parts of the world. It is of course evident that a custom so ancient, and so widely spread, must have its origin in some idea which satisfies the savage mind. Several explanations have been suggested. Professor Max Midler,^ in his ' Chips from a German Workshop,' says : — ' It is clear ' tlnit the poor husband was at first tyrannised over by 'his female relatioij, and afterwards frightened into ' superstition. He then began to make a martyr of ' himself till he made himself really ill, or took to his ' bed in self-defence. Strange and absurd as the cou- 'vade appears at first sight, there is something in it ' with which, we believe, most mothers-in-law can '* i ;-•» •f i 4 ' Loc. c'L p. 206. - riiips from a German Workshop, vol. ii. p. ti81. ^ ■4 son or f wards, icipally d from father, im eat- nt. f West igascar, , in the France, owever, oloffical rrardins? ractised On the ntly in >nt, and lie idea ^nations ' in his is clear 3ver by ed into rtyr of c to his le cou- g in it iw can f -ij I It •At .f I SAVAGE IDEAS ON THE INFLUENCE OF FOOD. 11» 'sympathise.' Lafitau^ regards it as arising from a dim recollection of original sin ; rejecting the Carib and Abipon explanation, which I have little doubt is the correct one, that they do it because they believe that if the father engaged in any rough work, or was careless in his diet, ' cela feroit mal u I'enfant, et que ' cet enfant participcroit a tons les defauts naturels des ' animaux dont le pere auroit mange.' This idea — namely, that a person imbibes the characteristics of an animal which he eats — is very widely distributed. In India, Forsyth mentions that ]\Iahouts often give their ele})hant ' a piece of a tiger's 'liver to make him courageous, and the eyes of the ' brown horned owl to make hun see well at night.' -^ The Malays at Singapore also give a large price for the flesh of the tiger, not because they like it, but because they believe that the man who eats tiger ' acquires the ' sagacity as well as the courage of that animal,' ^ an idea which occurs among several of the Indian hill tribes.* ' The Dyaks of Borneo have a prejudice against tlie ' flesh of deer, which the men may not eat, but which ' is allowed to women and children. The reason given *for this is, that if the warriors eat the flesh of deer ' they become as faint-hearted as that animal.' ^ ' In ' ancient times those who wished for children used to ' eat frogs, because that animal lays so many eggs.' ^ ' Mceur8 des Sauvages Amt5ri- * Dalton's Des. Etlin. of IJongal, cain?, vol. i. p. ti59, p. 33. ^ Forsyth's Highlands of Central ^ Keppel's Expedition to IJorneo, India, p. 452. vol. i. p. 231. •' Keppel's Visit to the Indian ^^ Iniuans Ancient Faiths in An- Archipelago, p. 13. cient Names, p. 383. c2 * 'J v^- 20 SAVAGE IDEAS ON THE IXELUENnE OF FOOD. The Carlbs will not cat the flesh of pigs or of tor- toises, lest their eyes should become .as small as those of dicse animals.^ The Dacotahs eat the liver of the clog, in order to possess the sagacity and courage of that animal/'' The Arabs also impute the passionate and revengeful character of their countrymen to the use of camel's flesh.*'' In Siberia the bear is eaten under the idea that its flesh ' gives a zest for the chase, and ' renders them proof against fear.' * The Kaflirs also prepare a powder ' made of the dried flesh of various ' wild beasts, intending by the administering of this ' compound to impart to the men the qualities of the ' several animals.' ^ Tylor ^ mentions that an ' English merchant in ' Shanghai, at the time of the Taeping attack, met his ' Chinese servant carrying home a heart, and asked him ' whai; he had got there. He said it was the heart of a ' rebel, and that he was going to take it home and eat ' it to make him brave.' The Ncav Zealanders, after baptising an infjuit, used to make it swallow pebbles, so that its heart might be hard and incapable of pity.^ Even cannibalism is sometimes due to this idea, and the New Zealanders eat their most forrrddable enemies partly for this reason. Until quite recent times many medical remedies were selected on this principle. It is from the same kind of idea that ' eyebright,' because the flower somewhat resembles an eye, was supposed to be good for ocular complaints. 1 Miillor's Gi'.scliichte dor Amori!- canischoii Urrelijriouen, p. ^21. * Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes, vol. ii. p. bO. ^ Astley's GoUection of Voyages, vol. ii. p. 143. ■* Atkinson's Upper and Lower A moor, p. 402. ^ Callaway's Religious System of the Amaziilii, pt. iv. p. 438. ^ Early History of Man, p. 131. ' Yates New Zealand, p. 82 FOOD. of tor- as those r of tlie irage of Lssionate 1 to the }n under ase, and firs also various of this s of the hant in met his ;ked him }art of a ! and eat rs, after pebbles, of pity/ lea, and enemies s many . It is because apposed iiid Lower s System of iS.' m, p. 131. , p. 82 SAVAOE IDEAS WITH llEFEUENCE TO rOliTUAITS. 21 To us the idea seems absurd. Not so to children. T have myself heard a little girl say to her brother, ' If ' you cat so much goose you will be quite silly ; ' and there are perhaps few children to whom the induction Avould not seem perfectly legitimate. From the same notion, the Esquimaux, ' to render ' barren women fertile or teeming, take old pieces of the ' soles of our shoes to hung aboat them ; for, as they ' take our nation to be more fertile, and of a stronger ' disposition of body than theirs, they fancy the virtue ' of our body communicates itself to our clothing.' ^ In fact, savages do not act without reason, any more than we do, though their reasons nuiy often be bad ones and seem to us singularly absurd. Thus they have a great dread of having their portraits taken. The better the likeness, the worse they think for the sitter ; so much life could not be put into the copy, except at the expense of the original. Once, when a good deal an- noyed by some Indians, Kane got rid of them instantly by threatening to draw them if they remained. Catlin tells an amusing, but melancholy, anecdote in reference to this feelin<>f. On one occasion he was drawin«j: a chief named Malitocheega, in profile. This, Avhen ob- served, excited much commotion among the Indians : ' Why was half his face left out ? ' they asked ; ' Mah- ' tocheega was never ashamed to look a white man in the * face.' Mahtocheega himself does not seem to have taken any offence, but Shonka, ' the Dog,' took advan- tage of the idea to taunt him. ' The Englishman knows,' he said, ' that you are but half a man ; he has painted ' but one half of your face, and he knows that the rest ' Egede's Greeiilaud, p. 198. i m if ■'('*■ 22 CURIOUS IDEAS WITH BEFEUENOE TO rOUTRAITS. V ' >i ! } ' is good I'or notliing/ Tliis view of the case led to u lif^lit, in wbicli poor Malitocliee«^a was shot ; and, as ill luck would have it, the bullet by which he was killed tore away just that part of the ftice which had been omitted in the drawing. This was very unfortunate for Mr. Catlin, who had great difficulty in making his escape, and lived some months after in fear of his life ; nor was the matter settled until both Shonka and his brother had been Killed in reven;a. Franklin also mentions that the North American Indians 'prize pictures very highly, and esteem any ' they can get, however badly executed, as efficient ' charms.' ^ The natives of Bornou had a similar horror of being ' written ; ' they said ' that they did not ' like it ; that the Sheik did not like it ; that it was a ' sin ; and I am quite sure, from the impression, that we ' had much better never have produced the book at all.' '^ 'I'he Fetich women in Dahome, says Burton, ' were easily ' dispersed by their likenesses being sketched.' ^ In his Travels in Lapland, Sir A. de C. Brooke say^i : — ' I ' could clearly perceive* that many of them imagined ' the magical art to be connected with what I was doing, ' and on this account showed signs of uneasiness, till ' reassured by some of the mc 'chants. An instance of ' this happened one morning, when a Laplander knocked ' at the door of my chamber, and entered it, as they ' usually did, without further ceremony. Having come ' from Alten to Hammerfe^vt on some business, curiosity ' \ ' Voyage to the Polar Sens, ii. G. ' Mission to the King of Da- - Deiiham's Travels in Africa, home, i. 278. vol. i. p. 275. ■• Brooke's Lapland, p. .'^54. TliAITS. SAVAflE IDEAS TX TiEGAPiV TO WRTTTXa. '2.) ccl to u id, as ill s killed id been ho had d some matter id been nerican ;m any jfficient similar did not t was a hat we It all' '^ } easily In his agined doing, ss, till nee of locked s they ^ come riosity of Da- * had induced him, previously to his return, to pay the ' Englishman a visit. After a dram he seemed rpiite at * his ease ; and producing my pencil, I proceeded, as he ' stood, to sketch his portrait. His countenance now ' immediately changed, and taking up his cap, he was ' on the point of making an abrupt exit, without my ' being able to conjecture the cause. As he spoke only ' his own tongue, I was obliged to have recourse to as- ' sistance ; when I found that his alarm was occasioned ' l)y my employment, which he at once comprehended, ' but suspected that, by obtaining a likeness of him, I ' should acquire over him a certain power and influence ' that might be prejudicial. He therefore refused to ' allow it, and expressed a wish, before any other steps ' were taken, to return to Alten, and ask the permission ' of his master.' Mr. Ellis mentions the existence of a similar feeling in Madagascar.^ We can hardly wonder that writing should seem to savages even more magical than drawing. Carver, for instance, allowed the Ncrth American Indians to open a book as often as and wherever they pleased, and then told them the number of leaves. ' The only way they ' could account,' he says, ' for my knowledge, was by ' conch ding that the book was a spirit, and whispered ' me answers to whatever I demanded of it.' ^ Father Baegert mcintions ^ that ' a certain missionary ' sent a native to one of his colleagues, with some loaves ' of bread and a letter stating their number. The mes- ' senger ate a part of the bread, and the theft was con- ' sequently discovered. Another time when he had to * Three Visits to Madagascar, p 358. '^ Travels, p. 355. ^ Smithsonian lleport, 1864, p. 379. m m 24 USE OF rnAYEns as medtcixe. \ ti i if . t t ■; I ' deliver four lojivos, he ate two of them, ])ut l»i'i f m 1 M IJ so hisKA.sEs surrnsun to nE tl mtientH (liH'cpcnt cole 'r'i i I . '^ wir patientH (iincpcnt colours in lionour of tlic spirit Avliich is supposed to have caused the disease.' In West Australia, for tlie same reason, it is tlie duty of the doctor to run round and roimd liis patient, sliouting as he <^oes, to keep away tlie evil spirit.*'^ Similar theories on the origin and nature of disease occur in various parts of the world, as, for instance, in Siberia, among the Kalmucks, the Kirghiz, and J>ash- kirs ; ^ in many of the Indl-^n tribes, as the Abors, Kacharis, Kols, &c. ; ^ in Ceylon ; '' among the Karens ; " in the Andamans ; in the Samoan and other Pacific Islands ; ^ in Madagascar, among the Oaribs,® &c. The consequence of this is that cures arc effected by ejecting or exorcising the evil spirit. Among the Kalmucks, this is the business of the so-called * Priests,' who induce the evil spirit to quit the body of the patient and enter some other object. If a chief is ill, some other person is induced to take his name, and thus, as is supposed, ' the evil spirit passes into his body.' ^ In T?ome there was an altar dedicated to the Goddess Fcver.'^ Certain forms of disease, indeed, are now, and, as wc know, have long been, regarded, even among the more advanced nations of the East, as caused by the 1^ ' I ^' ' Astley's Collection of Voyages, vol. ii. p. 430. Cruickshank, Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast, vol. ii. pp. 134, 144. " Forrest, Jour. Anthrop. Inst, vol. iii. p. 319. 3 IMiiller's Des. de toutes les Na- tions de I'Empire de llussie, part i. pp. 123, IGO. ■* Dalton's Des. Ethnology of Bengal, pp. 25, 85. '^ Saint-IIilaire, Le Boi' Iha et sa Religion, p. 387. " The Karens of the Chersonese, pp. 123, 354. ^ Turner's Nineteen Years in Polynesia, p. 224. Gerland's Cont. of Waitz's Anthrop., vol. vi. p. 082. ^ Tylor's Primitive Culture, vol. ii. p. 134. » De Hell's Sceppes of the Cas- pian Sea, p. 256. "^ Epictetus, trans, hy Mrs. Carter, vol. i. pp. 91, 104. CAVSIU) BY sriUITS. 27 prt'st'iu'ij of L'vil sph'it.s. 'The Assyrians and l)al>y- ' loulnns,' says tlio iJev. A. II. Saycc, ' like tlic .lews of ' the Talmud, believed that the world was swanniu^^ ' with ohnoxiouH spirits who produced the various dis- ' eases to which man is liable.' ' Many sava«^e races do not believe in luitural death, and if a man, however old, dies without Imntr wounded, conclude that he nuist have been the victim of nui^ic. Thus, then, when a savage is ill, he naturally attributes his suft'erings to some enemy within him, or to sonic foreign object, and the result is a peculiar system of treatment, curious both for its simplicity and uni- versality. ' It is remarkable in the Abiponian (Paraguay) i)hy- ' sicians,' says Father Dobritzhoft'er,^ ' that they cure ' every kind of disease with one and the same medi'-ir-c. ' liCt us examine this method of healing. They apply ' their lips to the part allccted, and suck it, spitting ' after every suction. At intervals they draAV u}) their ' breath from the very bottom of their breast, and blow ' upon that part of the body which is in pain. That ' blowing and sucking are alternately repeated. . . . ' This method of healing is in use amongst all the ' savages of Paraguay and Brazil that I am acquainted ' with, and, according to Father Jean Grillet, amongst ' the Galibe Indians. . . . The Abipones, still more ' irrational, expect sucking and blowing to rid the body ' of whatever causes pain or inconvenience. This belief ' Records of the Past, pub. by p. 249. See also Azara, Voy. dans the Society of Biblical Literature, I'Amt^r. Mdrid., vol. ii. pp. 25, 117, vol. i. p. l.",!. 140,142. '^ History of the Abipoms, vol. ii. H 1*1 if,t ;i M :.Tf'.' *i . ■ *» I . 1 28 MEDICAL TREATMENT ' is constantly fostered by the jugglers with fresh ' artilices ; for when they prepare to suck the sick ' man, they secretly put thorns, beetles, worms, &c. ' into their mouths, and spitting them out, after having ' sucked for some time, say to him, pointing to the ' worm or thorn, " See here the cause of your disorder." ' At this siffht the sick man revives, when he thinks ' the enemy that has tormented him is at length ' expelled.' At first one might almost be disposed to think that some one had been amusmg himself at the expense of the worthy father, but we shall find the very same mode of treatment among other races. Martins tells us that the cures of the Guaycurus (Brazil) ' are very simple, and consist principally in fumigating or in sucking the part affected, on which the Paye spits into a pit, as if he would give back the evil prmciple which he has sucked out to the earth and bury it.' ^ In British Guiana, Mr. Brett mentions that, ' if the patient be stiong enough to endure the disease, the excitement, the noise, and the fumes of tobacco in which he is at times enveloped, and the sorcerer observes signs of recovery, he will pretend to extract the cause of the complaint by sucking the part affected. After many ceremonies, he will produce from his mouth some strange substance, such as a thorn or gravel-stone, a fish bone or bird's claw, a snake's tooth or a piece of Avire, which some malicious yauhahu is supposed to have inserted in the affected part.' "^ The Mexican doctors pretended to extract a ' Travels in brazil, vol. ii. p. 77. '^ Brett's Indian Tribes of Guiana, p. ^04. ,*'6 AMOXG SAVAGES. 20 a piece of bone or some other object, which they then in- dicated to the patient as having been the cause of his aiifFering.^ In North America, atnong the Carolina tribes, ' the * theory was that «all distempers were caused by evil ' spirits.' ^ Father Baegert mentions that the Califomian sor- cerers blow upon and suck those who are ill, and finally show them sonic small object, assuring them that it had been extracted, and that it was the cause of the pain. Wilkes thus describes a scene at Wallawalla, on the Columbia IJivcr : — ' The doctor, who was a woman, ' bending over the body, began to suck his neck and ' chest in different parts, in order more effectually to ' extract the bad spirit. She would every now and then ' seem to obtain some of the disease, and then faint ' away. On the next morning she was still found suck- ' ing the boy's chest. ... So powerful was the hifluence ' operated on the boy that he indeed seemed better. . . . 'The last time Mr. Drayton visited the doctress, she ' exhibited a stone, about the size of a goose's e!. Indians, pp. 20, yo. ;i'* ¥A m M M ! m <■..'■ :t2J ['.'i l1 , i i 4 '■ 'o . ,t i I" [JO ME DIG A L Tli E. I TMENT :!l ' by all kinds of frightful noises and gestures, and snck- ' ing over the seat of pain with his mouth.' ^ Speaking of the Hudson's Bay Indians. Hearne says : — ' Here it ' is necessary to remark that they use no medicine either ' for internal or external complaints, but perform all ' their cures by charms — in ordinary cases sucking the ' part affected, bloAving and singing.' '^ Again, in the extreme North, Crantz tells us that among the Esquimaux old women are accustomed ' to ' extract from a swollen leg a parcel of hair or scraps of ' leather ; they do it by sucking with their mouth, ' which they hai before crammed full of such stuff.' ^ Passing now to the Laplanders, we are told that if any one among them is ill. a wizard sucks his forehead and blows in his face, thinking thus to cure him. Among the Tunguses the doctor sucks the forehead of his patient. In South Africa, Chapman tliUii' describes a similar custom : — A man having been injured, he says, ' our ' friend sucked at the wound, and then . . . extracted ' from his mouth a lump of some substance, which was ' supposed to be the disease.' * In New Zealand,^ each disease was regarded as being caused by a particular god ; thus ' Tonga was the ' god who caused headache and sickness : he took up his ' abode in the forehead. Mako-Tiki, a lizard god, was ' the source of all pains in the breast ; Tu-tangata-kino t 'I ^ I'i ' Schoolcraft's Indian Tribos, vol. '' Travels in Africa, vol. ii. p. 45. i. p. 250. See also Livingotoiie's Travels in '^ Voyage to the Northern Ocean, South Africa, p. 130. p. 180. ^ Taylor's New Zealand and its ' History of Greenland, vol. i. p. Inhabitants, p. 34. Shortland, p. 214. 114. AMOXG SAVAGES. was the god of the stomach ; Titi-hai occasioned pains in the ankles and feet ; Rongomai and Tuparitapu were the gods of consumption ; Koro-kio i)resided over cliihl- birth.' ' Sickness,' says Yate/ ' is brought on by the " Atua," who, when he is angry, comes to them in the form of a lizard- enters their inside, and preys upon their vitals till they die. Hence they use incan- tations over the sick, with the expectation of either propitiating the angry deity or of driving him away ; for the latter of which purposes they make use of the most tlireatening and outrageous language.' The Stiens of Cambodia believe 'in an evil genius, and attribute all disease to him. If any one be suffering from illness, they say it is the demon tormenting him ; and, with this idea, make, night and day, an insupportable noise around the patient.' '^ ' Among the Bechuana tribes, the name adopted by the missionaries (for God) is Morimo. . . . Morimo, to those who know anything about it, had been represented by rain-makers and sorcerers as a male- volent being which . . . sometimes came out and inflicted diseases on men and cattle, and even caused death.' The word did not at first convey to the Bechuana mind the idea of a person or persons, but of a state or disease, or what superstition would style bewitched. . . . They could not describe who or wluit ^[oriuio was, except something cunning or mali- cious. . . . They never applied the name to a human being, except in the way of ridicule, or in adulation * Yate's Xew Zealand p. 141. ■^ Mouhot'd Travels iu the Coutral Parts of ludo-China, vol. i. p. 1'50. N It* i m w. \m P ,..:""! ■I; *■' \! I : t 1 ■ h • i t 1 » ^ j 'i i^ 1 • 1 <\ r 1 i ^. 32 6MFJ6'^ IDEAS ON THE CAUSES OF DISEASES. ' to those who tau^-ht his greatness, wisdom, and ' power.' ^ The same idea occurs in Madagascar. Sibree gives the following account : — ' A woman of rank appointed ' for the occasion began to dance, while another, seated ' behind the sick persons, began to beat a worn-out ' spade, suspended by a string, with a hatchet, quite ' close to their ears, making a horrid din. I thought ' as I stood by, that if it wanted anything to make an ' indisposed person downright ill this would be a good • recipe. The idea of this is to drive the angatra (evil ' spirit) possessing the sick person into one of those ' dancing.' ^ The Koussa Kaffirs,^ says Lichtenstein, ascribe all their diseases ' to one of three causes : either to beino- ' enchanted by an enemy ; to the anger of certain beings, ' whose abode appears to be in the rivers ; or to the ' power of evil spirits.' Among the Kols of Nagpore, jis Colonel E. T. Dalton tells us, ' all disease in men ' and in cattle is attributed to one of two causes : the ' wrath of some evil spirit who has to be appeased, or ' the spell of some witch or sorcerer.' * The same is the case with the Cinghalese,^ and indeed with the aboriginal races of India generally. ' The good spirits of the departed, Azimo or Bazimo, ' may be propitiated by medicines, or honoured by ' offerings of beer or meal, or anything they loved while ' in the body ; and the bad spirits, " Mchesi," of whom ' WQ have heard only at Litte, and therefore cannot be ' certain that they belong to the pure native faith, may > Moffat's Travels, p. 2G0. - Folk Lore Record, vol, ii. p. 40. 3 Liflilenstcin, vol. ii. 3. 255. ^ Trans. Etbn. Soc, N.S., 1808, p. m. ^ St.-IIilaire, Boudha, p. 387. 4 •:fi SUCKING OUT THE EVIL. 33 pointed , seated orn-oiit t, quite thought lake an a good ,ra (evil 3f those iribe all o being . beings, to the agpore, in men tes : the ased, or same is ith the Bazimo, [red by Id while whom mot be [;h, may .S., 18G8, b). 387, * be prevented by medicine from making raids, and mis- * chief in the gardens. A man with headache was heard * to say, " My departed father is now scolding me ; I feel '"his power in my head ; " and he was observed to re- * move from the company, make an offering of a little * food on a leaf, and pray, looking upwards to where ' he supposed his father's spirit to be. They are not, * like Mohammedans, ostentatious in their prayers.' ^ In Australia, we are told by ex -Governor Eyre, m his interesting work, that, 'as all internal pains are ' attributed to witchcraft, sorcerers possess the power of ' relieving or curing them. Sometimes the mouth is ap- ' plied to the surface where the pain is seated, the blood ' is sucked out, and a bunch of green leaves applied to 'the part. Besides the blood, which is derived from ' the gums of the sorcerer, a bone is sometimes put out ' of the mouth, and declared to have been procured from ' the diseased part. On other occasions the disease is ' drawn out in an invisible form, and burnt in the lire ' or thrown into the water.' ^ Thus, then, we find all over the world this primitive cure by sucking out the evil, which perhaps even with ourselves lingers among nurses and children in the universal nursery remedy of ' Kiss it and make it well.' These misconceptions of the true nature of disease lead to many other singular modes of treatment. Thus, among the Kukis, the doctor, not the patient, takes the remedies. Consequently, food is generally prescribed, 3-*! ' Livingstone, vol. ii. p. 520. * Discoveries in Central Australia, vol. ii. p. 360. See also Olafield, Trans. Ethn. Soc, N.S., vol. iii. p. 243. I I' kffiV ft , »i Y K' * * J !t>: D ;o4 \K V' •t if if] ; i i u FANCIES ABOUT TWINS. and ill cases of severe illness a buffalo is sacrificed, and the doctor gives a feast. * Another curious remedy practised by the Austra- lians is to tie a line r< und the forehead or neck of the patient, while some kind friend rubs her li[)s with the ' other end of the strin^^ until they bleed freely ; this ' blood is supposed to come from the patient, passing ' along the string.' '^ It naturally follows from this, and is, as will be presently shown, the belief of many of the lower races of men, that death also is the work of vile spirits. A dislike of twins is widely distributed. In the Island of Bali^ (near Java), the natives 'have the sin- ' gular idea, when a woman is brought to bed of twins, ' that it is an unlucky omen ; and immediately on its ' being known, the woman, with her husband and chil- ' dren, is obli':, hoping^ thus to obtain young ones. They also believe that ' not only all animals, but trees, fruit, and even stones, have souls, which at death, or upon being- consumed or broken, ascend to the divi- nity, vv^ith whom they iirst mix, and afterwards pass into the mansion allotted to each.' The Tongans were of opinion that ' if an animal dies,^ its soul immediately goes to Bolotoo ; if a stone or any other substance is broken, immortality is equally its reward ; nay, artificial bodies have equal good uck with men, and hogs, and yams. If an ax^ or a chisel is worn out or broken up, away flics its soul for the service oi the gods. If a house is taken down or any way destroyed, its immortal part will find a situation on the plains of Bolotoo.' Hence probably the custom of breaking the implements, &c., buried with the dead. This was not done to render them useless, for the savage would not dream of violating the sanctity of the tomb ; but because the implements required to be ' killed,' so that their spirits, like those of the wives and slaves, might accompany their master to the land of shadows. Lichtenstein relates that the king of the Coussa Kaffirs, having broken off a piece of the anchor of a stranded ship, died soon afterwards ; upon which all the Kaffirs made a point of saluting the anchor very respectfully whenever they passed near it, regarding it as a vindictive being. Some similar accident probably gave rise to the an- cient Mohawk notion that some great misfortune would happen if any one spoke on Saratoga Lake. A strong- minded Englishwoman, on one occasion, while being ^ Mariner's Tonga Islands, vol. ii. p. 137. i ,1 ( J- 1 8 SALUTATIOXlil. turned ovor, insisted on talking, and, m slie got across safely, rallied her boatman on his superstition ; hut I think he had the best of it aftc^r all, for he at once replied, ' The Great Spirit is merciful, and knows that a ' white woman cannot liohl her tongue.' ' The forms of salutation among savanfes are sometimes very curious, and their modes of showing tlieir feelings (juite unlike ours, though they can generally be ex- plained without difficulty. Kissing apju^ars to us to be the natural language of affection. ' It is certain,' says Steele, ' that nature was its author, and it began with 'the hrst courtship ; ' but this seems to ])e quite a mis- take. In fact, it was unknown to the Australians, the New Zeahuideis, the Papouans, and the I^'squimaux ; (he African negroes, \vt arc told, do not like it, other- wise 1 should have thought tluit, when once discovered, it would have been universally popular. The New Zealanders, according to Shortland, did not know how to whistle ; '^ the V/est Ai'vUtitm do not shake hands ;'' the Jiatonga (one of the tribes n^siding on the Zambesi) salute their friends by throwing themselves on their backs on the ground, rolling from side to side, and shipping their thighs with their hands.^ Clap] ting of hands is a high mark of respect in Ijoango, and occurs also in various other negro ti'il)es ; till! J)idiomans and some of the coast negroes snap their fingers at a pei'scm as a comjJiment. In Loango courtiers salute the king by leaping backwards and fU ' Hiirton'a AbbeokiUiv, vol. i. p. ■' Iliirton's Mission to Dalionic, l'.>8. \ol. i. ]). ,'30. '* Traditions of tlit? Nfw Zcii- ' Ijivinjrstone's Tmvela iu South laiulevs, J) l;5l. AlVica, p. 001. h SAIUTATIOS'S. BD fbrwjirds two or three times, and swingino- their arms. The Fiie«:;ians sliow friendship l)yjiim|)inH; up and down, and aiiu)n<^st ourselves 'juni])in^" i^rjoy' lias become jrovei hial. The l»akaa, one of the Zand)esi tribes, have ft peculiar prejudice a^f-ainst ehihlren who cut the upper front teeth before the lower ones ; and 'you cut your top teeth first ' is one of the bitterest insulrs a man can receive.' 1 understand that amonjj; i'.ngiish luirses also it is considered to indicate a weakly constitution. The Polynesian? and the Malays always sit down when speaking to a su[)erior ; a (;hinaman ])uts on his hat instead of takinii' it off. Cook asserts that the jM'ople of Mallicollo show their admiration by hissin and the same is the case, accordin*:; to Casalis, anion<^ the KafKrs.'^ In somt; of the l*acilic islands, in parts of llindostan ■' and some parts of Africa, it is considered back to a superior. Some of the resp ectful to turn your New Tiuinea tribes salute a friend by squeezinjj; their (iwn noses ; "* on the White Nile" and in Ashantee they spit at you,^ and the ])eople of Jddah shake their fist as a friendly fi;reeting." The Todas of the Neil<^herry Hills o-ht usniir th le open ri on are said to show respect by ' r ' iiand to the brow, restino- the thumb on the m the upper Nile, Dr. Schweinfurth tells us,® that the mode of showiuL*' admiration is to open the mouth wide, and then cover it with the open hand ; and it has 1.1 m'''\ !:>; ■Ju: ' Ijiviiifrstone, /or. f/V. p. .077. '" PftluTick, pp. 424, 441. - The Ilasutos, by the IN'V. K. " IMipui.^, p. 17S. il'asftli.'<, p. 2;J4. " Allt'U and Thomson, vol. i. ■' Dubois, luc. cif. p. 210. p. 2!)(). ' Comvie, Jour. A nthr. Inst. 1870, * Ilcart of.MVira, vol. ii. p. 77. p. lOS. ■.,;■•» 1 h !!■: 1 r h\. 40 SALUTATIONS. been asserted that in one tribe of Esquimaux it is custonuiry to pull a iKjrson's none as a compliment, though it is but ri, IV, H I W'^ il:^l • o 44 ART AS AN h i i H Ml. I ' ': S SO characteristic of Polynesia ; but. on the other hand, their weapons are often covered with representations of animals and hunting scenes. Thus Beechey/ de- scribing the weapons of the Esquimaux at Hotham's Inlet, says : — ' On the outside of this and other instruments there were etched a variety of figures of men, beasts, birds, &c., with a truth and a character which showed the art to be common among them. The reindeer were generally in herds ; in one picture they were pursued by a man in a stooping posture, in snow-shoes ; in another he had approached nearer to his game, and was in the act of drawing his bow. A third repre- sented the manner of taking seals with an inflated skin of the same animal as a decoy ; it was placed upon the ice, and not far Irom it was a man lying upon hi? belly, with a harpoon ready to strike the aniix al when it should make its appearance. i\^othe^ was dragging a seal home upon a small sledge ; and several baidars were employed harpooning whales which had been previously shot with arrows ; and thus, by comparing one with another, a little history was obtained which gave us a better insight into their habits than could be rb*c'*tcd from any signs or intimations.' Some of these drawings are represented in figs. 2-4, which are taken from specimens presented by Captain Beechey to the Aphmolean Museum at Oxford. Hooper *^ also mentions drawings among the Tuski, especially ' a sealskin tanned and bleached perfectly * white, ornamented all over in painting and staining ' Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific, vol. i. p. 251. '^ Tents of the Tuski, p. 05. 1] ETHNOLOGICAL CEAEACTEE. 45 ' with figures of men, boats, animals, and delineations of '■ whale-fishing, &c.^ In the same way we may, I think, fairly hope event- ually to obtain from the ancient drawings of the bone caves a better insight into the habits of our predecessors in Western Europe ; to ascertain, for instance, whether their reindeer were domesticated or wild. As yet, however, mere representations of animals have been met with, and nothing has been found to supplement in any way the evidence derivable from the imple- ments, &c. But though we thus find traces of art — simple, indeed, but by no means contemptible — in very ancient times, and among very savage tribes, there are also other races who are singularly deficient in this respect. Thus, though some Australians are capable of mak- ing rude drawings of animals, &c., others, on the con- trary, as Oldfield ^ tells us, ' seem quite unable to ' realise the most vivid artistic representations. On ' being shown a large coloured engraving of an abo- ' riginal New Hollander, one declared it to be a ship, ' another a kangaroo, and so on ; not one of a dozen ' identifying the portrait as having any connection with ' himself. A rude drawing, with all the lesser parts ' much exaggerated, they can realise. Thus, to give ' tliem an idea of a man, the head must be drawn dis- ' proportionately large.' Dr. Collingwood,^ speaking of the Kibalans of For- ' mesa, to whom he showed a copy of the ' Illustrated 'London News,' tells us that he found it 'impossible ' Trans. Etiin. Soc, N.S., yol. iii. p, 227 " Ibid. vol. vi. p. 139. \.p>' ^ i il :.;^*i 4(3 ' '• r<' ART IN AFRICA. h'i^ ^ . I \ ■!■ ' to interest them by pointing out the most striking * illustrations, which they did not appear to compre- ' hend.' Denham in his ' Travels in Central Africa,' says that Bookhaloom, a man otherwise of considerable intelli- gence, though he readily recognised figures, could not understand a landscape. ' I could not,' he says, ' make ' him understand the intention of the print of the sand- ' wind in the desert, which is really so well described ' by Captain Lyons's drawing ; he would look at it up- ' side down ; and when I twice reversed it for him lie ex - ' claimed, " Why ! why ! it is all the same." A camel or ' a human figure was all I could make him understand, ' and at these he Avas all agitation and delight — " Gieb ! ' " gieb ! " — Wonderful ! wonderful ! The eyes first took ' his attention, then the other features ; at the sight of ' the sword he exclaimed, " Allah ! Allah ! " and, on ' discovering the guns, instantly exclaimed, " Where is '" the powder ?'" 1 So also the Kaffir has great difficulty in understand- ing drawings, and perspective is altogether beyond him. Central and Southern Africa seem, indeed, to be very backward in matters of art. Still the negroes are not altogether deficient in the idea. Their idols cannot be called, indeed, works of art, but they often not only represent men, but give some of the African charac- teristics with grotesque fidelity. The Kaffirs also can carve fair representations of animals and plants, and are fond of doing so. The handles of their spoons are often shaped into unmistake- nble likenesses of giraffes, ostriches, and other snimals. * Deiiliam's Travels in Afiica, vol. i. p. 1C7. < it: THE QUIPPU. 47 As to tlie Bushmen, we have rather different ac- counts. It has been stated by some that they have no idea of perspective, nor of how a curved surface can possibly be represented on a flat piece of paper ; while, on the contrary, other travellers asseit that they readily recoii'nise drawin<»;s of animals or flowers. The Chinese, although so advanced in many Avays, are, we know, very deficient in the idea of perspective. We may safely conclude that no race of men in the Stone A":e had attaine I I II II IS I I 24 11 yo Hi INDIAN CEN8US-R0LI,. IX J) IAN TUMU STONES. 51 the same totem, lie had dcsii^natcd eacli family l)y a sij^ii deiiotinjj^ the common name of the chief. Tlum nnmlxT 5 denotes a catfish, and the six strokes indicate tliat tlie Catiish's I'amily consisted of six indivi(hials ; S is a heaver skin, 1) a sun, V^ an ea^le, 14 a snake, 22 a hiiffah), M an axe, oo the medicine-injni, and so on. l-'io. 0. Fia. 7. f^y INDIAN GE\VE-P08TS. (Schoolcraft, vol. i. pi. 50.) Fig'. 6 is the record of a noted chief of the St. jVIary's band, called Shin-ga-ba-was-sin, or the Image-stone, who died on Lake Superior in 1eace in which he had taken part at various times. ^ Among the former marks are included his ' Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, vol. i. yi. 357. k2 "K. \ ■ tin \u 1 " '. i • 1 i ii 'A It: 1 * b li t 1 '" II \ 3 1 [: ' ■ ;' 52 VlOTUIiE.WRlTINQ Fia. 8. presence under Tociini.sL'h, iit the battle of Moruviaii- town, where lie lost a brother. Fig. 7 representH the adjedati^', or tomb-board, of Wabojeeg, a celebrated war-chief", who died on Lake Sii})erior, about 171)^i. lie was of the laniily or clan of the reindeer. This fact is symbolised by the li<»iire of the deer. The reverse position denotes dejith. His own personal name, which was the White ^ Fisher, is not noticed. The seven marks on the left denote that he had led seven war parties. The three per- })endicular lines below ihc totem re[)resent three wounds received in battle. The figure of a moose's head re- lates to a desperate conflict with an en- raged animal of this khid. Fig. 8 is copied from a bark letter which was found above St. Anthony's Falls in 1820. ' It consisted of white birch bark, and the figures had _-,^^ ^^.<^ a i5 t I f ; IX NO urn AMERICA. .•53 * })oon cnrefiilly drawn. No. 1 (Icnotds the fln«( of tlie ' Union: No. 2 tlif ciintonmcnt, then recently ostahlislied, 'at Cold SjU'ln;";, on the western side of the elill's, above *tlie influx of the St. Peters: No. 4 is the symbol of th(» ' corn innn(]in;jf officer (Colonel II. Leavenworth), undi i 'whose authority a mission of peac(! had l)een sent into 'the Cliippewa country: No. 11 is the symbol of 'Cliakope, or the Six, the leading Sioux chief, under ' whose orders the i)nrty iuovcmI : No. 8 is the second 'chief, called AVabedatunka, or the lilack Dog. The 'symbol of his name is Xo. 10 ; he has fourtecm lodges. * No. 7 is a chief, subordinate to Chakope, with tiiirteen 'lodges, and a bale of goods (No. 9), which was devoted ' by tiie Government to the ()l)jects of the peace. The ' name of N(^. (5, avIiosg wigwam ia No. 5, with thirteen ' subordinate lodges, was not given.' ^ This was intended to imply that a party of Sioux, headed by Cliakope, and accompanied or at least coun- tenanced by Colonel Leavenworth, had come to this spot in the hope of meeting the Chippewa hunters and con- cluding a peace. The Chippewa chief, Babesacundabee, who found this letter, read off its meaning without doubt or hesitation. On one occasion a party of explorers, with two Indian guides, saw, one morning, just as they were about to start, a pole stuck in the direction tliey were going, and holding at the top a piece of bnrk, covered with drawings, intended for the information of any ot I'cr Indians who might pass that way. Tlii:^ is reprcs'^nved in fig. 9. No. 1 represents the subaltern officer in comuinnd ' Schoolcraft's Indian Tribea, vol, i. pp. 352, 353. -V-^ ll 54 INDIAN BARK LETTEU. ■':i II l! '• I .f 1 1 I 111 ■' ^1 :1 of the party, lie is drawn with a sword to denote his rank. No. 2 denotes the secretary, lie is represented as ]ioidin-ure (iiii*. 10) cfives the biography of Wingemund, a noted chief of the Dela- INDIAN BIOCrUAniY. 55 waroR. 1 shows that it helonp^cd to the oldost branoli of tlie tribe, which use tlic tortoise on tlieir symbol ; 2 is his totem or sym1)ol ; 8 is the sun, and the ten strokes represent ten war parties in wliich he was engaged. Those fignres on the left represent the capti 'es whicli he made in each of his excursions, the men being dietin- gnished from the Avomen, and the captives 1)eing denoted by liaving lieads, while a man without his head is of course a dead man. The central figures represent three Fra. 10. INDIAN nioaRAriiY, forts which he attacked ; 8 one on Lake Krie, that of Detroit, and 10 Fort Pitt, at the junction of the Alle- ghany and the Monongahela. The sloping strokes denote the ninnber of his followers.^ Fig. 11 represents a petition jnTsented to the Presi- dent of the United States for the right to certaiii lakes (8) in the neighbourhood of Lake Superior (10). No. 1 represents Oshcabawis, the leader, wh.o is of ' Schonlcvaft, vol. i. p. 358. .'■:■ \ X f 1 i : ^ ;• 1 ; I \:\: i ■I ■. ■■ f II I ^0 INDTAN PETITION. SAVAGE ORNAMENTS. 57 the Crane clan. The eyes of liis followers are all con- nected with his to sym1)olise unity of views, and their hearts to denote unity of feeling. No. 2 is Wai-niit-tig- oazh, whose totem is a marten : No. 3 is Oixemaffee- zhig', also a marten; 1 is another marten, Muk-o-mis-ud- ains, the Little Tortoise ; 5 is 0-mush-kose, the Little Elk, l)elonging, however, to the Bear totem ; belongs to the ]\Ianfish totem, and 7 to the Catfish. The eve of tlie leader has a line directed forwards to the President, and another backAvards to the lakes ((S). Tlie manner in which such })icture-writing would ultimately have led to the use of an alphabet, would probably have been tliat the drawuigs would have come to represent, hrst a word, and then a sound, being at tlie same time simplitied and conventionalised. In some places of Western Europe, rock sculptures have been discovered, to which we cannot yet safely ascribe any meaning, but on which perhaps the more complete study of the picture-writing of modern savages may eventually throw some light. \¥e will now pass to art as applied to the purposes of personal decoration. Savages are passionately fond of ornaments. In some of the very lowest races, indeed, the women are almost undecorated, but that is only be- cause the men keep all the ornaments themselves. As a general rule, we may say that Southerners ornament themselves. Northerners their clothes. In fact, all savage races who leave much of their skin uncovered delight in paiiithig themselves in the most brilliant colours they can obtain. Black, white, red, and yellow are the favourite, or rather, perlia})s, the commonest colours. Although perfectly naked, the Australians of I>otany 58 SA VA GE OR NA ME NTS. i? H ft! .1 \hy were by no means without ornaments. They painted themselves with red ochre, white chiy, and charcoal ; the red was laid on in broad patches, the white generally in stripes, or on the face in spots, often Avith a circle round each eye ; ^ through the septum of the nose they wore a bone as thick as a man's finger and five or six inches long. This was of course very awk- ward, as it prevented them from breathing freely through the nose, but they submitted cheerfully to the incon- venience for the sake of appearance. They had also necklaces made of shells, neatly cut and struno' too;etlier : earrin^rs, bracelets of small cord, and strings of plaited human hair, which they wound round their waists. Some also had gorgets of large shells hauiiinii' from the neck across the breast. On all these things they placed a high value. Spix and Martins'- thus describe the oi'naments of a Coroado Avoman : — ' On the cheek she had a circle, and ' over that two strokes ; under the nose several marks ' resemblino; an j\[ ; from the corners of the mouth to ' the middle of the cheek were two parallel lines, and ' below them on both sides many straight stripes ; ' ])elow and betA 'een her breasts there were s^me con- ' nected se^'ments of circles, and down licr arms the 'figure of a snake was depicted. This beauty wore no ' ornaments, except a necklace of monkeys' teeth.' In Tanna ' one would jiave the one half of his face 'smeared with red clay, and the other the plain dark * copper . ivin ; another Avould have the brow and cheeks ■ red : another W(juld have the brow red and cheeks .i;-' ( 11 l' J s I ' IIawlc('S\\'ortir.s A'oyagos, vol. iii, p. 0".". -' Travels in Brazil, vol. ii. p. 221. ,S. I VA (JE OUNA MJJX'J'S. r/j ' l)Iack ; anotlicr all the face red, and a round, l)lack, ' glittering- spot on the forehead ; and another Avould have 'his face hlack all over. The black all over, by tlie way, ' was tlie sign of mourning.' ^ The savage also wears necklaces and rings, bracelets and anklets, armlets and leglets — even, if I may say so, bodylet«. Round their bodies, round their necks, round their arms and leo's, their hnixers, and even their toes, tliey wear ornaments of all kinds. Fro7n their number and weiglit tliese nnist sometimes be very inconvenient. Lichtenstein saw the wife of a l)eetuan chief wearing no less than seventy-two l)rass rings. A tSouth African chieftainess, visited by fjiving- stone," wore ' eigliteen solid Imiss rings, as thick as 'one's hnger, on each leg, and three of co])])er under 'each knee; nineteen brass rings on her left arm, and 'eight of l)rass and copper on lier right; also a large ' ivory ring ;d30ve each elbow. She liad a pretty l:>ead ' necklace, and a bead sash encircled her waist.' Xor are they particular as to the i rerial : copper, l)rass, or iron, leather or ivory, stones, ells, glass, bits of wood, seeds, or teeth — nothing < 'mes amiss. In S(nu]i-East Island, one of the Loui^.ade Archipelago, ^I'Gillivray even saw several bracc^ -ts made eacli of a lower luuuan jaw, crossed ])y a coll.ir-bone; and other travellers have seen brass curtain ring>. the brass plates for keyholes, the lids of sardin^j caso. and other such incongruous objects worn Avith much gravity and ])ride. Ihe Felatah ladies in Central Af^'u a spend several hours a day over their toilet, in fact they l)egin ovcr- I* 5 l.intr .\ i. I, ." ■* :!^' *'■ ^ Tr.rnev'.s Ninetfeii Years in Polynosia, ji. H. - J'A-p. to llu' ZanilH'si, p. 2S4, .^ *!■■ ■• !^^ i ■Hi GO CHEEK STUDS—LABBETS. night by carefully wrapping their fingers and toes in henna leaves, so that by morning they are a rich purple. Tlie teeth are stained alternately blue, yellow, and purple, one here and there being left of its natural colour, as a contrast. About the eyelids tliey are very p.irticulnr; pencilling them with suli)huret oi antimony. The hair is coloured carefully with indigo. Studs and other jewellery are worn in great profusion.^ Not content witli hano-in"; thinijj.s round tlieir necks, a^ms, ankles, and in fact wherever nature has enal^led them to do so, savau^es also cut holes in themselves for the purpose. The Esquimaux from Mackenzie River westward make two openings in their cheeks, one on each side, which they gradually enlarge, and in which they wear an ornament of stone resembling in form a large stud, and which may therefore be called a cheek stud. Brenchley saw the natives of the Solomon Islands decorated by crabs' claws stuck in the cartilage of the nose.^ Throughout a great part of Western America, and again in Africa, we also find the custom of wearing a piece of wood through the central part of the lower lip. A small hole is made in the lip during infancy, and it is then extended by degrees until it is sometimes as much as two inches lono;. Some races extend the lobe of the ear until it reaches the shoulder ; others file the teeth in various manners. Thus, among the Kcjangs of Sumatra, 'both sexes ' Jjaird's livpodition into llio Intorior of Africa, vol. ii. p. 94. ^ ('i'ui,*(i of the ' C»iracoa,'p. 250. and sexes ORNAMEiXTATIOK OF Till'J SKIX. 61 'have the extraordinary custom of filing and otherwise ' disfigurino- their teeth, which are naturally very white ' and beautiful, from the simplicity of their food. For ' files they make use of small wluitstones of different ' degrees of fineness, juid the patients lie on their backs ' during the operation. Many, i)artieularly women of • the Lampong country, have their teeth rubl)ed down ' (juite even with the gums ; others have them formed ' in })oiuts, and some file off no more than the outer ' coat and extremities, in order that they may the ' better receive and retain the jetty Ijlackness with ' Avhicli they almost universally adorn them.' ^ In Dr. Davis's collection is a Dvak skull in whicli the six front teeth have each been ari. tally pierced with a small hole, into which a pin with a spherical brass head has been driven. In this way, the u])per lip being raised, the shinii.ig knob on each tooth would be dis- played.^ Some of the African tribes also chip their teeth in various manners, each conmiunity having a fashion of its own. Ornamentation of the skin is almost universal among the lower races of men. In some cases every individual follows his own fancy ; in others, each clan has a special pattern. Thus, speaking of Abeokuta, Captain Burton^ says : — ' There was a variety of tattoos and orna- ' mentation, rendering them a serious difHeulty to ' strangers. The skin patterns were of every variety, ' from the diminutive })riek to the great gash and the ' large Ijoil-like lumps. They affected various figures ' — tortoises, alligators, and tlie favourite lizard, stars, -Marsdtn's Ilisturv of Suiuati-a, 01'. ■^ Thtvjaunio Crauiuruin, p. 28!J. ^ Abeokuta, vol. i, p. 104. '■ ; I ■'■;•' ': i lif ' •^ ii: !^; r.2 TiniiE MAh'KS. it 1 ■ . i if * concentric circle, lozcn^^es, riglit lines, welts, gouts of 'gore, ninrble or button-like knobs of flesb, and ele- ' Viited scars, resembling scalds, whieli are o])ened for 'the introduction of fetish medicines, and to ex])el evil ' influences. In this country every tribe, sub-tribe, Jind ' even family, has its blazon,^ whose infinite diversitica- ' tions may be compared with the lines and orduiaries ' of luu'opean heraldry.' 'The Ardrahs''^ make an incision in each cheek, turning up a part of the flesh towards the ears and healing it in that position. The Mahees are distin- guished by three long oblique cuts on one cheek, and a cross on the other.' In South Africa the Nyambanas are characterised by ti. row of pimples or warts, alwut the size of a pea, and extending from tl'ie upper part of the forehead to tl^ tip of the nose. Among the Bachapin Kaffirs, those who have distinguished themselves in battle are allowed the privilege of marking their thigh with a long scar, which is rendered indeliljle and of ti bluish colour by rubbinig ashes into the fresh wound. The tribal mark of the Bunns^ (Africa) consists €>r three slashes from the crown of the head dcjwn the fjice toward the mouth ; the ridges of flesh stand out in bold relief. This painful operation is performed by cutting the skm, and taking out a strip of flesh ; palm oil and wood ashes are then rubbed into the wound, thus causing a thick ridge. The Bornouese in Central Africa have twenty cuts or lines on each side of th'^ Ik I '% |. i • fe; I* -^ 1 See also Baikie's Exploring " Dalzel, History of Dahomy, Voyage, pp. 77, 294, 336, and es- p. xviii. pecially -ioO. ^ Traiits. Etbn. Soc, vol. v. p. 86. TATTOOING. bo uts of 1(1 de- ed tor {'1 evil (', and •siiiea- iiinries cheek, I's and distiii- , and a sed by :!a, and to the se who ed the which iibl)ing ists of n the nd out led by palm vound, 'entral of the Uahomy, . V. p. 86. ■--ii I I face, which are drawn from the corners of the mouth towards the anu'les of tlie lower iaw and cheekbone. They ha\'e also one cut in the centre of the forehead, six on each arm, six on each Iclt, four on each l)reast, and nine on each side, just above the hips. 'J'his makes 1)1 lari>\3 cuts, and the process is said to be extremely >ainful on account of the heat and flies. ^ The islanders of Torres Straits ornament themselves by a large oval scar, slightly raised and neatly made. It is situ\Hted on the right shoulder, but some of them have a secx)nd on the left. At Cape York many of the natives also had two or three long transverse scars on the chest. Many had also a two-horned mark on each breast, but these difl'erences seemed to depend on the tast<> of the individual. The custom of tattooing is found almost all over the world, though, as might be expected, it is most developed in hot countries. In Siberia, however, the Ostiak women tattoo the backs of the hands, the fore- arm, and the front of the leg. The men only tattoo, on the wrist, the mark or sign which stands as their siu'nature. Among the Tuski ^ ' the faces of the women are tat- ' tooed on the chin in diverging lines ; men only make ' a permanent mark on the face for an act of prow^ess ' or success, such as killing a bear, capturing a wliide, ' &c., and possibly also, in war time, for the death of an * enemy.' The Aleutian Islanders decorate their hands and faces with figures of cpuidrupeds, birds, flowers, &c. ?;!■•;: ' Denhaiu, vol. iii. p. 1 7.3. ' I'allas, vol. iv. p. 50. *' Hooper, Tuski, p. ;J7. Tlio TfuU of ihu 64 TATTOOINd U :i? i : "\ Amonanihil oj»eration, impress on 'their naked skins various figures of trees, ilowers, ' and animals. The Ljreat men in (luinea have their 'skin [lowered like damask ; and in l)eean the W(»men 'likewise have ilowers cut into their flesh on the fore- ' head, the arms, and the breast, and the elevated sears 'arc painted in colours, and exhibit the ap[)earance of ' flowered damask.' - In the Toni>a Islands ' tlu; men arc tattooed from ' the middle of the thigh to above the hips. The women 'are only tattooed on the arms and fingers, and there ' very slightly.' '' In the Fcejec Islands, on the con- trary, the women are tattooed and not the men. In the Gambler Islands, Iieeehey says,' • tattooing is ' so nniversally practised, that it is rare to meet a man ' without it ; and it is carried to such an extent that ' the figure is sometimes covered with small checkered ' lines from the neck to the ankles, thougli the breast is •M.r; • * :m ' M'Gillivrav"^ Vuyii«j:e oi' llu' ' Rattlesnake/ vol. i. \\. 2(ii?. - Forstcr's Obseivation 111 p. 588. ^ Cooks Vova%^ \t^ V 66 TATTOOING. ■ t l\\ \ m ' "generally cxonipt, or only ornaincntt'd with a single ' device. Ill some, ji^cnerally elderly men, the face is ' covered below the eyes, in which case the lines or net- ' work are more open than on other parts of the body, ' probably on account of the pain of the operation, and ' terminate at the ni)per jjart in a strai«iht line from ear ' to ear, passing over the bridge of the nose. With ' these excej)tions, to which we may add the fashion, ' with some few, of bbie lines, resembling stockings, ' from the middlt; of the thiij^h to the ankle, the effect is ' becoming, and in a great measure destroys the appear- * ance of nakedness. The patterns Avhich most improve ' the shape, and whicli api)ear to me peculiar to this ' group, are those which extend from the armpits to ' the hii)s, and are drawn forward with a curve which ' seems to contract the waist, and at a short distance ' gives the figure an elegance and outline, not unlike ' that of the figures seen on the walls of the Egyptian ' tond)s.' Fig. 12 represents a Caroline Islander, after Frey- cinet, and gives an idea of the tattooing, though it cannot be taken as representing the form or features characteristic of those islanders. The tattooing of the Sandwich Islanders is less ornamental, the devices beiui*', according: to Arasfo, ' unmeaning and whimsical, without taste, and in general 'l)adly executed.' ^ IVrhaps, however, the most beau- tiful of all was that of the New Zealanders (see figs. 13 and 11), who were generally tattooed in ciu'ved or spiral lines. The i)rocess is extremely [>ainful, par- ticularly on the lips ; but to shrink from it. or even to ' Arago'sliotters, pt. ii. p. 147. TATTOOmO. •37 sIjow any .si<(ns of siitterinrojccts over each temple. One, ' two, or three cords of twisted hair often fall from the * ri«^ht temple, a foot ()r eii;hteen inches long. Some * men wear a numher of these braids, so as to form a ' curtain at the back oi' the neck, reaching from one ear ' to the other. A mode that requires gi*eat care has ' the hair brou<»:ht into distinct locks radiatinff from the ' head. Each lock is a perfect cone about seven inches ' long, having the base outwards ; so that the surface of ' the hair is marked out into a great number of small ' circles, the ends being turned in in each lock, towards ' the centre of the cone.' '^ In some of the I^acific Islands the natives wear wigs, or tresses of hair, in addition to their own." ' Fiji and the Fijians, vol. i. p. p. 338, ef neq. 158. ■' Tlale's United States Expl. '^ See, for many furtlicr par- Expedition: I'^thnography, p, 12. ticulars, Darwin's Descent of Man, so irifA X HA ini) h'i'jss. n Sclnveinfurtli (loscril>es a ilsmdy, lM'l<>M«,ni>jLJ: to thv. |)inkaH, a nejjfn) trilK» of tl»e Soudan, whose liair wan dyed red, and trained np into pointH like ton^j^uen of Hanie, standin*^ stiilly up, all round his head. Jn fact, the passion for self-ornanicntation seems to ]>revail anionj^st the lowest as much as, if not more than, anioniT the more civilised races of man. HI spl. « 't • I f ; L f ' : 7i rilAPTEU III. MAUIUAUK AND HKLATIONSIIII'. 1^(»TIlIX(i}, ])orlinp8, ^ivi^s a more iiistnictivc insiible was ' Kolben's Hist, of Uie Cjipo of ^ Travels in South Africa, vol. i. Good Hope, vol. i. p. 102. p. I'd. 'i'///'; VOSITION OF W'OMEX AMONd SAVArUIS. 73 tninsluti'd by tlie inissionaruss into tlmt langiuige it was necessary to invent a word for tlie purpose. ' In liis native state,' says Mr. IMorj^nn/ ' the (North ' American) Indian is heh)\v the passion of love. It is ' entirely unknown amonj; tlieni, with th(? exception, to ' a limited extent, of the village Indians.' He men- tions elsewhere a eas(> of an Ahahiu^lin woman named • Kthahe,' who had U'en married for three yt-ars to a lilaekl'oot Indian, yet there was no common articulate lani'ua'^e which they both understood. They connnuni- cated entirely by si«»-ns, neither of them having taken the trouble to learn the other's language.*'' Though the songs of savages are generally devoted to the chase, war, or women, they can very rarely be called love songs. Dr. Mitchell, for instance, who was ibr several years chairman of the United States Senate ('ommittee on Indian Affairs, mentions that ' neither ' among the Osages nor the Cherokees couM there be ' found a single poetical or nuisical sentiment, founded 'on the tender passion between the sexes. Though ' often asked, they produced no songs of love.' ^ In Yariba (Central Africa),* says Lander, ' nuirriage ' is celebrated by the natives as unconcernedly as pos- ' sible : a man thinks as little of taking a wife as of ' cutting an ear of corn — affection is altogether out of • tlie question.' The King of Boussa,^ he tells us in another place, ' when he is not engaged in public affairs, ' usually employs all his leisure hours in superintending 'H '' I ' Systems of Consanguinity and 317. AlUuity of the Human Family, p. * R. and J. Lander's Nifjfer Ex- 207. pedition, vol. i. p. 101. '' Loc. cit. p. 227. ' Ibid. vol. ii. p. 106. See also ^ Arcboeol, Americana, toI. i. p. p. 107. ' I r i ^" i . 1 V i ii 74 Aiisi':\('i-: or A/'FEnrrnN ix MAuujMn:. Mlic oortipatioiiH of his IkmihcIioM, niid iiiiikiii;^ liis nwii 'clotlK^H. The Midiki (((lU'i'ii) and ht> hnve car to have n<)tirm<^ in eoni- ' nion witli each otlier, and yet we liave never Heen so 'friendly a eoiiple Hinee h!avinand and wife.'' Ainon^^ th(; Mandin;^ocs inarria^^t; is nxi'ely a I'orin of re«::uhited slavery. IIus])and and wife 'never lauju'li nr joke to- ';^^ether.' ' I asked l>al)a,' says (-aillie, 'why he did not 'sometimes maki; merry with liis wives. He replieeared mi the limbs on the most trivial provocati. ' .Tonos, Antiqiiitios of the ' Charlovoix IHst. of Paraguay, Soiilhoni Indians, p. Ci7. vol. i. p, 01. * l-'vroV Disrovi'rios, vol. ii. p. ' Zor. rif. p. 352. Soc also 3Jl. Sue notos. ,1 i It m ..,,- & 4 m 'r' '' "fk-; \ ■ . i: ttf f H 1 !i! i .t 1 • 76 UELATIONSIITP AMONG SAVAGES. ' at all good-looking, their position is, if possible, even ' worse than otherwise.' Again, our family system, which regards a child as equally related to his father and his mother, seems so natural that Ave experience a feeling of sur[)risc on meeting with any other system. Yet we shall lind, I think, reason for concluding that a man was first re- garded as merely related to his tribe ; then to his mother but not to his father; then to his father and not to liis mother ; and only at last to both father and mother. Even among the Komans the family was originally based, not on marriage or on relationship, but on power ; ^ ' le lien seul,' says Ortolan, ' de la pa- ' rente naturelle, de la parente de sang, n'est rien chez les ' Komains ; ' and a man's wife and children only formed a part of his family, not because they were his relatives, but because they were subject to his control ; so that a son who was emancipated — that is to say, made free — had no share in the inheritance, having ceased to belong to the family. We shall, however, be better able to understand this part of the question when we have con- sidered the various phases which marriage presents ; for it is by no means of a uniform character, but takes almost every possible form. In some cases nothing of the sort appears to exist at all ; in others it is essentially temporary, and exists only till the birth of the child, when both man and woman are free to mate themselves afresh. In others, the man buys the woman, who becomes as much his property as his horse or his dog. In Sumatra there were formerly three perfectly dis- ' Ortolan's Expl. Hist, des In&tituts de TEmp. Justiuien, vol. i. pp. 12G, 128, 130, 41G. n DIFFERENT KINDS OF MAUltlAGE, 77 1. pp. tinct kinds of nuirriage : tlie ' »JLigur.' in which the man purchased the woman ; the ' Ambel-anak,' in whicli the woman purchased the man ; and the ' Semando,' in which they joined on terms of equaUty. In the mode of marriage by Ambel-anak, says Marsden,^ ' tlie father ' of a virgin makes a choice of some young man for her ' husband, generally from an inferior family, which rc- ' nounces all further right to, or interest in, him ; and ' he is taken into the house of his father-in-law, who ' kills a buffalo on the occasion, and receives twenty ' dollars from his son's relations. After this, the buruk ' baik' nia (the good and bad of him) is invested in the ' wife's family. If he murders or robs, they pay the ' bafigun, or fine. If he is murdered, they receive the ' bangun. They are lia])le to any debts he may con- ' tract in marriage ; those prior to it remaining with ' his parents. He lives in the family, in a state between ' that of a son and a debtor. He partakes as a son of ' what the liouse aifords, but has no property in himself. ' His ric'i plantation, the produce of his pei)j)er garden, ' with everything that he can gain or earn, belongs ' to the family. He is liable to be divorced at their ' pleasure, and though he has children, must leave all, ' and return naked as he came.' In the Jugur marriage the woman became the pro- potty of the man. 'The Semando''^ is a regular treaty between the ' parties, on the footing of equality. The adat paid to ' the girl's friends has usually been twelve dollars. ' The agreement stipulates that all effects, gains, or ' earnings are to be equally the property of both ; and, » Maisden's Hist, of Sumatrn, p. 2G2. - Ibid. p. 263. :! i Mi I it- t .1 - . i 1 ■'J 78 BIFFEUENT KINDS OF MARRIAGE. * in case of divorce l)y mutual consent, the stock, debts, ' and credits are to be equally divided. If the man only * insists on the divorce, he gives the woman her half of ' the effects, and loses the twelve dollars he has paid. ' If the woman only claims the divorce, she forfeits her ' right to the proportion of the effects, but is entitled 'to keep her tikar, bantal, and dandan (paraphernalia), ' and her relations are liable to pay back the twelve ' dollars ; but it is seldom demanded. This mode, ' doubtless the mcst conformable to our ideas of con- ' jugal right and felicity, is that which the chiefs of the ' Kejang country have formally consented to establish ' throughout their jurisdiction, and to their orders the ' influence of the Malayan priests will contribute to give ' efficacy.' These three forms of marriage, co-existing in Sumatra, represent, as we shall see, three stages passed through successively by various other races. The Hassaniyeh Arabs have a very curious form of marriage, which may be called 'three-quarter' marriage ; that is to say, the woman is legally married for three days out of four, remaining perfectly free for the fourth. In Ceylon there were two kinds of marriage — the Deega marriage, and the Beena marriage. In the former the woman went to her husband's hut ; in the latter the man transferred himself to that of the woman. Moreover, according to Davy, marriages in Ceylon were provisional for the first fortnight, at the expi- ration of which period they were either annulled or confirmed.^ ' Davy's Ceylou, p. '28ii. DIFFEIiENT KINDS OF MA If HUGE. '9 Amon<'* the Hoinans, as .shown ])y tlic Laws of tlie TA\elve Tables, there were in reality two kinds oi mar- riage, and, as Ortolan says, ' il faut se bien garder de con- fondre entre eux le mariage (nuptite, jiistaj nuptia;, jns- tiini niatrimonium) et la puissance niaritale (manus).' ^ The latter required the performance of ceremonies, which wx're unnecessary for the former. Among the Karoks, marriage is strictly a matter of ])urchase : wdien a young man has paid the price of his l)ride, she becomes his property ; on the other hand, if he cannot provide the whole sum he is sometimes al- lowed to pay a portion, and become what is called ' half- married.' In that case, instead of bringing her to his cabin, and making her his slave, he goes to hers and becomes subject to her, or rather to her father. Azara tells us that among the Guanas carefid stipulations were made as to the duties and obligations the bride imder- took with reference to her husband : how far she was bound to i)rovide him food, whether she was to procure the necessary firewood, whether she was to be the sole wife, whether she was to be free to marry another man also, and in that case how" much of her time the first husband wished to eno-jme. In Japan, among the higher classes, it is said that the eldest son brings his bride to the j)aternal home ; but, on the other hand, the eldest daughter does the same, and retains her name, which is assumed by the bridegroom. Thus the wife of an eldest sons joins her hu.sl)and's fnmily ; but, on the other linnd, tlie husl)and of an eldest daughter enters into tliat of his wife. Among the Komans, though ' coemptio,' or purchase, ' Ortolan's Expl. Iliijt. dc't> Inst, do IL'mp. Juslinu'n, p. 127. 51 IS m ■xi. "•i i HP^ An II I :'ff' ■1^ t;"'*'vJ m I' i :l i 80 POLYANDRY. was one of the recognised forms of marriage, it would seem that originally this merely gave possession, and a woman who belonged to any man by coemptio might otherwise be married to another.^ Hence the eldest son of one family cannot marry the eldest daughter of an- other. As regards the yoimger children, if the husband's fatlicr provides the liouse, the wife takes her husband's name : while if the bride's father docs so, the bridegroom assumes that of his wife." Among the K eddies '"^ of Southern India a very singular custom prevails : — ' A young woman of sixteen or twenty years of age may be married to a boy of five or six years ! She, however, lives with some other adult male — perhaps a maternal uncle or cousin — but is not allowed to form a connection with the father's relatives ; occasionally it may be the boy-husband's father himself — that is, the woman's father-in-law! Should there be children from these liaisons, they are fathered on the boy-husband. When the boy grows up, the wife is either old or past child-bearing, when he in his turn takes up with some other " boy's " wife in a manner precisely similar to his own, and procreates children for the boy-husband.' Polyandry, or the marriage of one woman to several men at once, is more common than is generally sup- posed, though much less so than polygamy, which is almost universally permitted among the lower races of men. One reason — though I do not say the only one — • Fu,«tal de C'oulonges, La Citd Family, p. 428. Antique, p. ."iyO. ' Short t, Trans. Ethn. Soc, New - Morgan's System of Consan- Scries, vol. vii. p, 104. guinity and Affinity of the Human SEPARATION OF HUSBAND AND WIFE. 81 several sup- for this, is obvious when pointed ont. Long after our children are weaned, milk remains an important and necessary part of their food. We supply this want with cow's milk ; but among people who have no domesti- cated animals this cannot, of course, be done, and con- sequently the children are not weaned until they are two, three, or even four years old, during all which period the husband and wife generally remain apart. Thus, in Feejee, ' the relatives of a woman take it as a public ' insult if any child should be born before the customary 'three or four years have elapsed, and they consider ' themselves in duty bound to avenge it in an equally ' public manner.' ^ It seems to us natural and proper that husband and wife should enjoy as much as possible the society of one another. On the contrary, among the Turkomans, according to Fraser, for six months or a year, or even sometimes two years, after a marriage, the husband was only allowed to visit his wife by stealth. ' After tlie ' wedding,' says Hurnes, ' the bride returns to the house of ' her parents, and passes a year in preparing the caq)ets ' and clothes, which are necessary for a Toorkmun tent ; ' and on the anniversary of her elopement, she is finally ' transferred to the arms end house of her gallant lover."'^ Among the Samoyedes the bride and bridegroom are kept apart for a month after their marriage,^ and Klemm states that the same is the case among the Cir- cassians until the first child is born. Martins mentions the existence of a similar custom among ^lome of the ;'■■/;! loc, New ' Seemann, A Mission to Fiji, vol. ii. p. 50. See also VainWry'a p. 101 . Travels in Central Asia, p. 323. ^ Burnes' Travels in Bokhara, ^ Piilliiti, vol. iii. \\ 70. (r •>» ,. " 1 f J, > ■ ■i V > « I ■"!■ ■t H 82 SEPARATION OF HUSBAND AND WIFE. Brazilian tribes.^ Among the Feejeeans, husbands and wives do not usually spend the night together, except as it were by stealth. It is quite contrary to Feejeean ideas of delicacy that they should sleep under the same roof. A man spends his day with his family, but absents himself on the approach of night.^ In Chitta- gong (India), although, ' according to European ideas, ' the standard of morality among the Kyoungtha is low,' yet husband and wife are on no account permitted to sleep together until seven days after mjirriage.^ Burckhardt * states, that in Arabia, after the wedding, if it can be called so, the bride returns to her mother's tent, but again runs away in the evening, and repeats these flights several times, till she finally returns to her tent. She does not go to live in her husband's tent for some months, perhaps not even till a full year, from the wedding-day. Among the Votyaks, some weeks after the wedding the bride returns to her father's tent, and lives there for two or three months, sometimes even for a year, during which time she dresses and behaves like a girl, and after which she returns to her husband ; making, however, even on the second occasion, a show of resistance.^ Lafitau informs us that among the North American Indians the husband only visits the wife as it were by stealth: — ' lis n'osent aller dans les cabanes particulieres, * oil habitent leurs epouses, que durant I'obscurite de la ' Jour. Roy. Geog. Soc. vol, ii. p. 108. " Seemann's Mission to Viti, p. 191. 3 Lewin's Hill Tracts of Chitta- gong, p. 51. * Burckliai'dt's Notes, vol. ii. p. 2G9, quoted in M'Lennan's Primitive Marriage, p. 302. • MuUer's Des. de toutes les Nations de I'Emp. de Russia, part ii. p. 71. ABSENCE OF MARBIAGE CEREMONY. 83 * nuit ; . . . ce serait ime action extraordinaire de s'y ' presenter le jour.' ^ In Futa, one of the West African kingdoms, it is said that no husband is allowed to see his wife's face until he has been three years married. In Sparta, and in Crete, according to Xenophon and Strabo, it was the custom that married people for some time after the wedding only saw one another as it were clandestinely ; and a similar custom is said to have existed among the Lycians. So far as I am aware, no satisfactory explanation of this custom has yet been given. I shall, however, presently venture to suggest one. There are many cases in which savages have no such thing as any ceremony in marriage. ' I have said nothing,' says Metz, ' about the marriage ceremonies of the Bada- 'gas (Hindostan), because they can scarcely be said to ' have any.' The Kurumbas, another tribe of the Neil- gherry Hills, ' have no marriage ceremony.' '^ According to Colonel Dalton,^ the Keriahs of Central India ' have no ' word for marriage in their own language, and the only ' ceremony used appears to be little more than a sort of ' public recognition of the fact.' It is very singular, he adds elsewhere, ' that of the many intelligent observers ' who have visited and written on Butan, not one has ' been able to tell us that they have such an institution ' as a marriage ceremony.' The tie between man and woman seems to be very slight, and to be a mere matter of servitude. ' From my own observation,' he continues, 'I believe the Butias to be utterly indifferent on the ' Loc. cit. vol. i. p. 670. ^ Trans. Ethn. Soc. vol. vii. p. 276. ' Ibid. vol. vi. p. 25. i. ^:?'?-,r, •2:Vt ■ ' ■ . KtP.n n Iv Via 84 ABSENCE OF MARRIAGE CEREMONY. } ' * subject of the honour of cheir women.' ^ So also the Spanish missionaries found no word for marriage, nor any marriage ceremony, among the Indians of Cali- fornia.^ Farther nortli, among the Kutchin Indians, * there is no ceremony observed at marriage or birth.' ' The same is the case among the Aleutians,* and several other North Pacific tribes. The marital rite, says Schoolcraft, ' among our tribes ' (i.e. the Redskins of the United States) ' is nothing more ' than the personal consent of the parties, without re- ' quiring any concurrent act of a priesthood, a magistracy * or witnesses ; the act is assumed by the parties, without * the necessity of any extraneous sanction.' ^ According to Brett, there is no marriage ceremony among the Arawaks of South America.^ Martins makes the same assertion with reference to the Brazilians generally,^ and it is also the case with some of the Australian tribes.^ There is, says Bruce, ' no such thing as marriage in * Abyssinia, unless that which is contracted by mutual * consent, without other form, subsisting only till dis- * solved by dissent of one or other, and to be renewed * or repeated as often as it is agreeable to both parties, ' who, when they please, live together again as man and ' wife, after having been divorced, had children by others, ' or whether they have been married, or had children * with others or not. I remember to have once been at » Des. Ethn. of Bengal, p. 07. ' Bagaert, Smithsonian Report, 1863, p. 308. Bancroft, vol. i. p. 565. ' Smithsonian Report, 1866, p. 326. ♦ Bancroft, vol. i. pp. 92, 277. yio. * Indian Tribes, pp. 248, 132. ^ Guiana, p. 101. ^ Loc. cit, p. 61. ^ Eyre's Discoveries, vol. ii. p. ABSENCE OF MAJIRIAOE CEREMONY. 8r» ' Koscam in presence of the Itej^lic (the queen), wlien, ' in the circle, there was a woman of great quality, and ' seven men who had all been her huHhauds, none of ' whom was the happy spouse at that time.* An5 • * If i\ ■.j» I i • . : il ■. i 1 . 1 \ ' the priest has no concern. Where it is contracted it * ap|)ear8 to be pretty well kept, though sometimes ' the parties separate by mutual consent, and in that 'case a divorce takes place with as little trouble as ' the marriage. But though the priesthood has laid * the people under no tax for a nuptial benediction, * there are two operations which it has appropriated, ' and from which it derives considerable advantages. ' One is tattooing, and the other circumcision.' ' Yet he elsewhere informs us that married women in Tahiti are as faithful to their husbands as in any other part of the world. We must bear in mind that there is a great distinction between what may be called ' lax ' and ' brittle * mar- riages. In some countries the marriage tie may be broken with the greatest ease, and yet, as long as it lasts, is strictly respected ; while in other countries the very reverse is the case. Perhaps on the whole any marriage ceremony is better than none at all, but some races \iave practices at marriage which are extremely objectionable. Some, also, are very curious, and no dcubt symbolical. At Banabe, one of the Micronesian Pacific Islands, the wife is tattooed Avith the marks standing for the names of her husband's ancestors.''^ One portion of the marriage ceremony among the Mimdaris, one of the Bengal Hill tribes, is very suggestive. The bride walks in front of the bridegroom with a pitcher of water on her head, supported by one arm. The bridegroom walks behind, ' Cook's Voyage Round the World, Ilawkesworth's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 240. For Uuroliiie Is- lands, see Kleium, loc. cit. vol iv. p. 209. » Hale's United States Explor. Exped. : Ethnography, ?. 7tt. MARRIAGE CEREMONIES. 87 and through the pretty loopliole thuw formed he 8lioots an arrow. The girl walks on to where tlie arrow falls, picks it up with lier foot, takes it into her hand, and re- spectfully returns it to her Iiusband.^ In many parts of India, bride and bridegroom are marked with one another's blood, probably to signify the intimate union which has taken place between them. This is the custom, for instance, among tlie IJirhors. Colonel Dal- ton believes this to be ' the origin of the custom now so ' universal of marking with red lead.' * In other cases the idea symbolised is less obvious. Among some of the Hindoo tribes the bride and bridegroom are respectively married to trees in the lirst instance, and subsequently to one another. Thus a Kurmi bridegroom is married to a mango, his bride to a malwa tree.'^ The idea un- derlying this I take to be that they are thus devoted to tlie deities of the Mango and Malwa, and having thus become respectively tabooed to other men and women, are, with the consent of the deities, espoused to one another. In ancient Russia as part of the marriage ceremony, the father took a new whip, and after striking his daughter gently with it, told her that he did so for the last time, and now^ presented the whip to the bride- groom, to whose power she then passed.* Among the Canadian Indians, Carver^ says that when the chief has pronounced the pair to be married, 'the bridegroom turns round, and, bending his body, 'takes his wife on his back, in whicli manner he carries ' Dalton's Des. Ethn. of Bengal, p. 105. - ZfeiV/. pp. 220, 310. » Itrid. p. 310. ' Meiners, Vergl. d»'s alt. und neuer. liusalands, vol. ii. p. 107. » Travels, p. .'574. , I! • -A ...J.. ■!'!i''.hf HI m m f t i, ■* ; I I If S8 LIFTING TllK UUIDE. ' her, amidHt the accluiiuitionH of the BjxjctatorH, to his ' tent.* The Western tribes regard it as nn important part of the marriage ceremony tliat tlie bride sliould be carried to lier lius])and's dwelling.' ^ In Mexico also the husband took the bride on his back and carried her a short distance.^ J5riice, in Abyssinia, observed an identical custom. When the ceremony is over, he says, * the bridegroom takes his lady on his shoulders, and ' carries her off to his house. If it be at a distance he ' does the same thing, but only goes entirely round about * the bride's house.' ^ In China, when the bridid procession reaches the bridegroom's house, the bride is carried into the house by a matron, and ' lifted over a pan of charcoal at the 'door."* We shall presently see that these are no isolated cases, nor is the act of lifting the bride over the bride- groom's threshold an act without a meaning. I shall shortly mention many allied customs, to the importance and significance of which our attention has recently been called by M'Lennan, in his masterly work on ' Primitive Marriage.' I will now attempt to trace up the custom of mar- riage in its gradual development. There is strong evidence that the lowest races of men live, or did live, in a state of what may perhaps be called ' Communal Marriage.' In many of the cases above given (pp. 70- 75) there can hardly be said to be any true marriage in our sense of the term, and many other instances might 730. • Bancroft, vol. i. p. 411, 703, « Ihid. vol. ii. p. 261. 285. 3 Vol. vii. p. 67. * Davis, The (Jhinese, vol. i. p. nKLATIOSSIIII'S TSJiHPIJSlfKS'T OF MAURI AOE. s«j live. 1)C given. In tlie Amlainan iHlnndH,' Sir Kdwanl Hc'lcher stfttes that the custom is for the man and woman to remain together until the cliild is weaned, when they separate as a matter of course, and each seeks a new partner. Tlie Bushmen of South Africa are stated to be entirely without marriage. Among the Nairs (India), as Huchanan tells us, 'no one knows ' his father, and every man looks on his sister's children 'as his heirs.' The Teehtirs of Oude 'live together 'almost indiscriminately in large comnuwiities, and even ' when two people are regarded as married the tie is but ' nominal.' '^ In China, conuuunal marriage is stated to have pre- vailed down to the time of Fouhi," and in Greece to that of Cecrops. The Massagetic,* and the Auses,** an Kthio- ])ian tribe, had, according to Herodotus, no marriage — a statement which is confirmed by Strabo as regards the former. Stral)o and Solinus make the same statement as regards the Garamantes, another Ethiopian tribe. In California, according to Baegert,® the sexes met without any formalities, and their vocabulary did not even contain the words ' to marry.* Garcilasso de la \'ega asserts that among some of the Peruvian tribes, l)efore the time of the Incas, men had no special wivcs.^ Speaking of the natives of Queen Charlotte Island, ' Traus. Ethn. Soc. vol. v. p. 45. » The People of India, by J. F. Watson and J. W. Kaye, publislied by the Indian Government, vol. ii. pi. 86. ^ Goguet, L'Origine des Lois, des Arts ot dos Sciences, vol. iii. p. 328. * Olio, vol. i. p. 21G. * Mt'li)omene, vol. iv. 180. * Loc. (it. p. 3G8. ' ('ommentariea of the Incas, trans, by C. Ii Markham, vol. ii. p. 443. I " K . -Si 1 .' ? ^ In !;. ■■'*^;fcVf 'f \ ^ •I .1 I !i : 1 'i c \ L ■ 90 AUSTRALIAN SYSTEM OF RELATIONSHIP. Mr. Poole says,^ 'among these simple and primitive ' tribes, the institution of marriage is altogether un- ' known.' The women appear to consider almost all the men of their own tribe in the light of husbands. They are, on the contrary, very circumspect in their behaviour with other men. According to native legends, communal marriage existed in ancient times among the natives of Australia. Messrs. Fison and Howitt state that the South Aus- tralian tribes ''^ are divided into two classes or clans, Kumite and Kroki, the feminine equivalents of which are Kumitegor and Krokigor, and every Kumite is theore- tically the husband of every Krokigor, every Kroki being in the same way the husband of every Kumitegor. It is not asserted that marital rights are actually exercised to this extent at the present day, but they exist and are still acknowledged to a certain extent. So again among the Kamilaroi tribes, there are four great clans, of which the brothers and sisters are respectively Ipai and Ipatha, Kubi and KuHtha, Muri and Matha, Kumbu and Butha. Ipai may only marry Kubitha ; Kubi, Ipatha ; Kumbu, Matha ; and Muri, Butha. But Mr. Lance first pointed out, and he has since been fully confirmed by subsequent writers, that in a certain sense every Ipai is regarded as married, not by any individual contract, but by organic law, to every Kubitha ; every Kubi to every Ipatha, and so on. If, for instance, a Kubi, says Mr. Lance, * meet ' a stranger Ipatha, they address each other as spouse. ' A Kubi thus meeting an Ipatha, though she were of ' another tribe, would treat her as his wife, and his right ' Queen Cliarlotte Islands, p. "^ See Fison and Ilowitt, The 312. Kamilaroi and Eiirnai, p. 60. re of right SOUTH SEA SYSTEM OF RELATIONSHIP. 91 ' to do so would be recognised by her tribe.' ^ It would appear, however, that this right is now dying out, and is in most cases merely nominal. The backwardness (until lately) of the Sandwich Islanders in their social relations, is manifested in their language. This is shown from the following table extracted from a longer one, given by Mr. Morgan in a most interesting work on the Origin of the Classifica- tion System of Relationship.^ Hawaian Kupuna signifies Makua kana = - Makua waheena = - English ' Great grandfather Great great uncle Great grandmother Great grandaunt Grandfather Granduncle Grandmother Grandaunt. ' Father Father's brother Father's brother-in-law Mother's brother Mother's brother-in-law (^ Grandfather's brother's son. f Mother Mother's sister Mother's sister-in-law Father's sister i^ Father's sister-in-law. ' Quoted by Fison and Ilowitt, ^ Systems of Consanguinity and luc. cit. p. 5;{. Affinity. I 11^ ;: ',- u I m .■>..j m 1:1 ,■1! 11;^' Li m '■;> I#: Si " ify-w 1 i; ' "■k : :> ■■ ■ . ' • , . ' 111 ili 92 SOUTH 8EA 8Y8TEM OF RELATIONSHIP, Havnian Kaikee kana = Hunona Waheena Kana Panalua Kaikoaka Engluh rSon Sister's son Brother's son Brother's son's son Brother's daughter's son Sister's son's son Sister's daughter's son Mother's sister's son's son Mother's brother's son's son. Brother's son's wife _ 1 Brother's daughter's husband I Sister's son's wife I Sister's daughter's husband. r Wife Wife's sister Brother's wife Wife's brother's wife Father's brother's son's wife Father's sister's son's wife Mother's sister's son's wife (^ Mother's brother's son's wife. ■ Husband Husband's brother Sister's husband. Wife's sister's husband (brother-in-law). Wife's brother. The key of this Hawaian or Sandwich Island ' system is the idea conveyed in the word waheena (woman). Thus — ' Morgan, Proceedings of the American Association, 1868. SOUTH SEA SYSTEM OF RELATIONSHIP. Hawaian English 93 Waheena = L r Wife Wife's sister Brother's wife Wife's brother's wife. All these are equally related to each husband. Hence the word — Kaikee = Child, also signifies the brother's wife's child ; and no doubt the wife's sister's child, and the wife's brother's wife's child. So also, as the sister is wife to the brother-in-law (though not to her brother), and as the brother-in-law is husband to his brother's wife, he is consequently a father to his brother's children. Hence ' Kaikee ' also means ' sister's son ' and ' brother's son.' In fact ' Kaikee ' and ' Waheena ' correspond to our words ' child ' and * woman,' and there are apparently no words answering to ' son,' ' daughter,' ' wife,' or ' husband.' That this does not arise from poverty of language is evident, because the same system discri- minates between other relationships which we do not distinguish. Perhaps the contrast is most clearly shown in the terms for brother-in-law and sister-in-law. Thus, when a woman is speaking — Sister-in-law = husband's brother's wife = punalua. Sister-in-law = husband's sister = kaikoaka. But brother-in-law, whether sister's husband or husband's brother = kana, i.e. husband. When, on the contrary, a man is speaking — Sister-in-law = wife's sister = waheena, i.e. wife. Sister-in-law = brother's wife = waheena, i.e. wife. ■'if >'i [j 1 1 V •■. ;. u 1 1 i-f li 94 SOUTH SEA SYSTEM OF ItELATlONSIIIP. And so — Brother-in-law = wife's brother = kaikoaka. Brother-in-law = wife's sister's husband = punalua. Thus a woman has husbands and sisters-in-law, but no brothers-in-law ; a man, on the contrary, has wives and brothers-in-law, but no sisters-in-law. The same idea runs through all other relationships : cousins, for instance, are called brothers and sisters. So again, while the Romans distinguished between the Father's brother = patruus, and the mother's brother = avunculus ; Father's sister = amita, and the mother's sister = matertera ; the first two in Hawaian are makua kana, which also signifies father ; and the last two are makua waheena, which also means mother. In the next chapter I shall enter more at length into the subject of Relationships, but the above will suffice to show that the idea of Marriage does not, in fact, enter into the Hawaian system. Uncleship, aunt- ship, cousinship, are ignored; and we have only — Grandparents Parents Brothers and sisters Children, and Grandchildren. Here it is clear that the child is related to the group. It is not specially related either to its father or its mother, who stand in the same relation as mere uncles TOD A SYSTEM OF RELATIONSHIP. 95 and aimts ; so that every child has several fathers and several mothers. There are, I think, reasons in the social habits of these islanders which go far to explain the persistence of this archaic nomenclature. From the mildness of the climate and the abundance of food, children soon become independent ; the prevalence of large houses, used as mere dormitories, and the curious prejudice against eating in common, must also have greatly tended to retard the development of special family feelings. Yet the system of nomenclature above men- tioned did not correspond with the actual state of society as found by Captain Cook and other early voyagers. Among the Todas of the Neilgherry Hills, however, when a man marries a girl she becomes the wife of all his brothers as they successively reach manhood, and they also become the husbands of all her sisters as they become old enough to marry. In this case 'the first- 'born child is fathered upon the eldest brother, the ' next-born on the second, and so on throughout the 'series. Notwithstanding this unnatural system, the ' Todas, it must be confessed, exhibit much fondness ' and attachment towards their offspring, more so than ' their practice of mixed intercourse would seem to ' foster.' 1 In the Tottiyars of India, also, we have a case in which it is actually recorded that 'brothers, uncles, ' and nephews hold their wives in common.' '^ So also, according to Nicolaus,^ the Galactophagi had conimu- • Shortt, Trans. Ethn. Soc, N.S. vol. vii p. 240. ' Dubois' Description of the Peo- ple of India, p. 3. ^ Bacliofen, Das Mutterrecht, p. 21. h la i a;- I I/- it, ,S1 kJ>:lete. This custom seems to hjive continued down to the time of Nerva, who, in adopting Trajan, transferred the ceremony from the marriage-bed to the temi)le of tlupiter.^ Diodorus^ gives a very curious account of the same custom as it existed among the Greeks, men- tioning that Juno adopted Hercules by going through a ceremony of mock birth. In other cases the symbol of adoption represented not tlie birth, but the milk-tie. Thus, in Circassia, tlie woman offered her breast to the person she was adopting. In Abyssinia, Parkyn tells us that 'if a man ' wishes to be adopted as the son of one of su})erior ' station or influence, he takes his hand, and, sucking 'one of his fingers, declares himself to be his "child by ' " ado])tion," and his new father is bound to assist him 'as far as he can.' ^ Among some races marriage between foster children is strictly forbidden. The same idea of ado})tion underlies, })erhaps, the curious Esquunaux habit of licking anything which is l)resented to them, a})parently in token of ownership.*" M is, vol. ' Ninett'cn Yoar.s in Polynesia, 2o4. p. 179. 4 IV. .'}0. Sec Notes. '•* Gerland, "NVaitz' Anthropologie, * Paikyn's Abyssinia, p. l!)8. vol. vi. p. 21G. •• Franklin's Jouim-ys, 1810-22, * Miiller, Das Mutterrecht, p. vol. i. p. 34, H 98 OLUQINAL OR COMMUNAL MAURI AGE. '\ Dietfeiilxicli ^ also mentions tliu practice of licking a present in Xew Zealand ; here, however, it is tlie donor who does so. In the Ton^a Ishuids, Captain Cook tells us that •'lie natives ' liave a singidar custom of })utting everything' 'you i^ive them to their heads, by way of thanks, as ' we conjectured.' '^ LabiUardiere observed the same practice in Tasmania."' Assnming, then, that the communal marriage system shown in the preceding i)ages to prevail, or have [)re- vailed, so widely among races in a low stage of civilisa- tion, represents the primitive and earliest social con- dition of man, we now come to consider the various ways in which it may have been broken up and replaced by individual marriage. Montesquieu lays it down almost as an axiom, that ' Voljligation naturelle qu'a le pere de nourrir ses ' enfants a fait etablir le mariage, qui declare celui qui ' doit remplir cette obligation.' * Elsewhere he states that ' il est arrive dans tons les pays et dans tous les ' temps que la religion s'est melee des mariages.' ^ How far these assertions are from the truth will be conclu- sively sliown in the follov/ing pages. Bachofen,^ M'Lennan,'^ and Morgan, the most recent authors who have studied this subject, all agree that the primitive condition of man, socially, was one in which marriage did not exist,^ or, as we may perhaps for ccnivenience call it, of communal marriage, where ' Now Zoaland, vol. ii. p. 104. ^ Voyage towai'ds the South Polo, vol. i. p. '22\. ^ Gerlaiid, AVaitz' Authropolo- gie, vol. vi. p. 812. ' Esprit des Lois, vol. ii. p. 18G. '' Loc. fit. p. 20!). ^ Das Mutteneclit. ' Primitive Marriage. '* Ibid, xviii, xix. OHIO IN OF MAli'IilJGE. ra all the incu aiul women in a small community were iv^anled as equally married to one another. Jiacliofen considers that after a while the women, shocked and scandalised by such a state of things, revolted au;ainst it, and established a system of marriage; with female supremacy, the husband being subject to the wife, i)roperty and descent being consideriid to g(j in the female line, and women enjoying the principal share of i)olitical power. The first period he calls that of ' Hetairism,' the second of ' Mutterrecht,' or ' mother- • right.' In the third stage he considers tliat the ethereal influence of the father })revailed over the more material idea of motherhood. Men claimed pre-eminence, pro- perty and descent were traced in the male line, sun Avorship superseded moon worslii}), and many other changes in social organisation took place — mainly because it came to be recognised that the creative influence of the father was moi*e important than the material tie of motherhood. The father, in fact, was the author of life, the mother a mere nnrse. Thus he regards the first stage as lawless, the second as material, the third as spiritual. 1 believe, however, that commnnities in which women have exercised the supreme power are rare and exceptional, if indeed they ever existed at all. We do not find in history, as a matter of fact, that women do assert their rights, and savage women would, T think, be ])eculiarly unlikely to uphold their dignity in tlu! manner su})posed. (hi the contrary, among the lowest races of men, as, for instance, in Australia, the position of the women is one of complete subjection ; and it seem<> to me perfectly n 2 I * m 'n I ' ■mi i? 1(X) ni'JLATKLWSIIir AMOXa THE UOMANS. . : ! clear tlint tlic i(l(!a of inarriii^(! is iouixlcd on tlio rij^lits, Dot of the woman, l)nt of tlie man, hein*^ an illustra- tion of the good old plan, That he should take who has the power, And he shoidd keep who can. Amonj^ low races the wife is indeed literallv the property of lier husband. As l*etruchio says of Catherine — I will he master of what is min(! own. She is my gotids, my chattels; she is my house, My liousehold stuff, my field, my ham, My horse, my ox, my ass, my anything. So thorounhly is this the case, that a Roman's * family ' originally, and indeed tlirouohout classical tinle^', meant his slaves, and the children only formed part of the family because they were his slaves ; so that if a father freed his son, the latter ceased to be one of the family, and had no part in the inheritance. ' 'rhe mere tie of blood relationship,' says Ortolan, ' was of no account among the IJomans The ' most oeiieral expression and the most comprehensive ' term indicatino* relationship in Komaii Law is rotjiiatio ' — the cognation, that is to say, the tie between persons ' who are united by the same blood, or those reputed 'by the law as such (c(>(/ti((fi ; qwisi una comnianiter ^nafi). But cognation alone, whether it proceeds from 'legal marriage or any orher union, does not place 'the individual within the family, nor does it give any 'right of family.'' h^ven at the present day, in some * Ortolan's History of Roman Law, tr. by Prichard and Naduiitli, p. 129. MltESTUNn FOR WIVES. 101 |)ju*ts of Africa, ti iiinn's propiTty *f()VH, not to liis chil- dren, as such. l)iit to liis slaves. Anionj;' the West African trilu's of the (Johl Coast, under ordinary eireinnstaiujes the wite was the slaM- of her iiushand, purchased of her father hy tlie dowry, Imt if ' the w ife l)c a woman of free status, who contracts ' a free union with her husl)and, not only are her children ' not his slaves, hut neither she nor they become mem- ' hers of his i'amily.' ^ The fact that the wife is re<4'ardcd literally as the property of the husband explains those cases wdiich seem to us so remarkable, in which achofen and i\rorgan, starts with a stage of Iletairism or communal mju'riage. The next stage was, in liis o[>inion, that form of polyandry in which brothers had their wives m common ; afterwards came tliat of the Icrirdtc, i.e. the system under which, when an elder brother died, his second brother married the widow, and so on with the others in succession. Thence he considers that some tribes branched off into endogamy, others into exogamy ; '' that is to say, some ' llcariit', p. 104. ■* See, for instance, Lcwin'.s Hill -' .Tourney to llie Shores of the Tracts of Chittnjrong', pp. 47, 77, H), Tnlar Seas, vol. viii. p. 43. (>.{, i>,S, 101. ■' Richardson's ]}oat Journey, * Zoc. rif. p. 14o. V..1. ii. p. 24. I T7TE TliVE FXriAXATTOX. lO.'J lorlmdo mnrrinpfe out of, otliers witiiiu, the triho. If cither of tlu-c two svstcin.s avms older tlisin tlu* otlicr, he consithirs thut cxnj^iiinv must hasc hccu the luorc aiicii'iit. Kxo^iuuy was huHcd on iufsinticidc,' nud U-d to the praetice of njarria^x; l>y captun!.''' In a further sta«i;c the iro. (hicino; as it would a division in the trihe, ohvialed the necessity of ca])tiire as a reality and rc(hice«l it to a syniboL In 8U})port of this view Mr. M'Leiinan has certainly l)rou«iht forward many striking, fiiets ; l»iit, while ad- niittini!; that it prohahly rejtresents the succession of events in some cases, I cainiot hut thiid< that these ar(> exceptional. Kxo<;amy is in fact often associated with polygamy, wliich under Mr. M'Lennan's system could not well he. Fully admitting the ])rcvalence of infanticid(; among savages, it will, 1 think, ])e found that among the lowest races hoys were killed as fre(piently as girls. Eyre expressly states that this avp.s the case in Australia.*'' In fact, the distinction i)etwcen the sexes implies an amount of forethought and ])rudence a\ hieh the lower races of men do not possess. For reasons to he given shortly, I believe tliat com- munal marriage was gradually su])erseded l)y individual marriage founded on ca])ture, and tliat this led firstly to exogamy and then to fem.'de infanticide ; thus re- versmg ]\I'Lennan's order of sequence, l^ndogauiy and regulated polyandry, though frefpient. 1 regard as ex- ceptional, and as not entering into the normal progress of development. ' Lor. (it, ]i. 13S. -' Loo, (if, ]>. 1 10. ' Discoveries, kc, vol. ii. p. .'{2-1. i ,1 'J '''■ , M*;1 J* <'fm 4,-i 104 THE TRUE EXPLANATION. m\ ! ^ 1 <■ With MTiOnnan, Bachofen, and Mors tliis view, thougli he does not iilloiretlior accept my sn^i'gestions as to oom- niunal niavriaire, or as to llio ri^'lits of nimi witliin tlie tril)e. '' Luc. (it. p. 44. irlits OliiaiN OF MAURIAUE liY CAVTUllE. 105 The symbol of capture, however, was not one of hiw- lessness, but, on the other liand, of — according to the ideas of the times — hiwful possession. It did not refer to those from whom the captive was taken, but was intended to bar the rights oi tlie tribes into which she was introduced. Individual marriage was, in fact, an infringement of comminial riglits ; the man retaining to himself, or the man and woman mutually api)ropriat- ing to each other, that whicli should have belonged to the whole tribe. Thus, among the Andamaners, any woman who attempted to resist the marital privileges claimed by any member of the tribe was liable to severe })uuishment.* Nor is it, I think, difftcult to understand why tlie symbol of capture does not ai)pear in transferences of other kinds of })roperty. Every generation requires fresli wives ; the actual capture, or at any rate the symbol, needed tlierefore repetition. This, however, does not apply to land ; when once the idea of landed property arose, the same land descended from owner to owner. In other kinds of property, again, there is an ini])ortant, though different kind of, distinction. A nian made his own bow and arrows, liis own hut, his own arms ; hence the necessity of capture did not exist, and the synd)ol would not arise. ]\rLenuan supposed that savages were driven by female infanticide, and the conse(pient al)sence or [)aU' city of women, into exogamy, and marriage by <'a[)ture. II e considered that the pr u tice of capturinir women for wives could not have become systematic unless it were developed and sustained by some rule of law or laiis. Ktl 111. Sdo. N.8. vol. ii. >ji>. -?4 mi ■M (i lOG OniGIN OF MAJiniAGE BY GAPTURE. : '• '■ I : ' 'custom,' and 'that the rule of law or custom which ' had this effect was exo2;amy.' ^ I shall presently give my reasons for rejecting this explanation. He also considers that marriage by capture followed, and arose from, that remarkable custom of marrying always out of the tribe, for which he has pro- posed the appropriate name of exogamy. On the con- trary, I believe that exogamy arose from marriage by capture, not marriage by capture from exogamy ; that capture, and capture alone, could originall}'- give a man the right to monopolise a woman, to the exclusion of his fellow-clansmen ; and that hence, even after all necessity for actual capture had long ceased, the symbol remained ; capture having, by long habit, come to be received as a necessary preliminary to marriage. That marriage by capture has not arisen from female modesty is, I think, evident, not only because we have no reason to suppose that such a feeling piovails spe- cially among the lower races of man ; but also, firstly, because it cannot explain the mock resistance of the relatives ; and, secondly, because the very question to be solved is why it became so generally the custom to win the female not by persuasion but by force. M'Lennan's view throws no light on the remark- able ceremonies of expiation tor marriage, to which I shall presently call attention. I will, however, first proceed to show how widely ' capture,' either actual or symbolical, enters into the idea of marriage. M'Lennan was, T believe, the first to appreciate its im- portance. 1 have taken some of the following instances m 'fc ' I tako tliis from tho articlo in Ihe Fortniplitly for June 1877. I'M ' ' .51 MAURTAGE BY CAPTURE ORIGINALLY A REALITY. 107 from his valuable work, with, however, much addi- tional evidence. It requires, no doul)t, strong evidence, wliicli, how- ever, exists in abundance, to satisfy us that the origin of marriage was independent of all sacred and social considerations ; that it liad nothing to do with mutual affection or sympatliy ; ti'iat it was invalidated by any appearance of consent ; and that it Avas symbolised, not by any demonstration of warm affection on the one side and tender devotion on the other, but by brutal violence and unwilliniz: submission. Yet, as already mentioned, the evidence is over- whelming. So completely, for instance, did the Caril)s supply tliemsclvcs with wives fvom the neighboiu'ing races, and so little communication did they liold with them, that the men and women actually spoke different languages. So, again, in Australia the men, says Old- field, ' are in excess of the other sex, and, consequently, ' many men of every tribe are unprovided ^ith that ' cs]:)ecial necessary to their comfortable subsistence, a ' Avife ; wlio is a slave in the strictest sense of the word, ' being a beast of burden, a provider of food, and a ' ready object on which to vent those passions that the ' men do not dare to vent on each otlier. Hence, for ' those coveting such a luxury, arises the necessity of ' steal ino- tlie women of some otlier tribe ; and, in their ' expeditions to effect so laudable a design, they will ' cheerfully undergo privations and dangers equal to ' those they incur when in search of blood-revenge. ' Wlien, on such an errand, they discover an improtected ' female, their proceedings are not of the most gentle 'nature. Stunning her by a blow from the dowak (to w m Jfi'-M I t ■ti- ' X i -' , 1 * , . t ^ h i i 111 1. 108 MAUniAQE BY CAPTURE ORIGINALLY A JiEALlTY; 'make her love them, perhaps), they drag her by the ' hair to the nearest thicket to await her recovery. ' Wlien she comes to her senses thoy force her to ' accompany them ; and as at worst it is but the ex- ' change of one brutal lord for another, she generally ' enters into the spirit of the affair, and takes as much ' pains to escape as though it were a matter of her own ' free choice.' ^ Collins thus describes the manner in wluch the na- tives about Sy<1ney used to procure wives : — ' The poor wretch is stolen ' pon in the absence of her protectors. ]5eing first stupefied with blows, inflicted with clubs or wooden swords, on the head, back, and shoulders, every one of which is followed by a stream of blood, she is then dragged through the woods by one arm, with a perseverance and violence that it might be sup- posed would displace it from its socket. This outrage is not resented by the relations of the female, who only retaliate by a similar outrage when they find an opportunity. This is so constantly the practice among them that even the children make it a play-game, or exercise.'' Marriage by capture is the third form of marriage sjiecially recognised by ancient Hindoo law.^ In Bali also,* one of the islands between Java and New Guinea, it is stated to be tlit; practice that girls ' are stolen away by their brutal lovers, who sometimes ' surprise them alone, or overpower them by the way, ' and cjirry them off with dishevelled hair and tattered 250. ' Trans. Ethn Soc, vol. iii. p. ). "^ Oollins's Eiiun M. I 1 is' : . ■A li ]J ■■. 112 TUNaUSES—KAMCllA DA LES. away on a richly caparisoned liorsc, with loud 8hoiits and feu de joie.' ' Dr. Clarke'* gives a charrnini^ly romantic account of the ceremony. ' The girl,' he says, ' is first mounted, who rides off at fidl speed. Her lover pursues ; if he overtakes her, she becomes his wife, and the marriage is consumnuited on the spot ; after this she returns with him to his tent. l^>ut it sometimes hni)pens that tlie woman does not wish to marry the person by whom she is pursued ; in this case, she will not suffer him to overtake her. We Avere assured that no in- stance occurs of a Kahnuck girl bein<»; thus cauij^ht, unless she have a i)artiality to the pursuer. If she dislikes him, she rides, to use the language of English sportsmen, " neck or nought," until she has completely effected her escape, or until her pursuer's horse be- comes exhausted, leaving her at liberty to return, and to be afterAvards chased by some more favoured admirer.' ' Among the Tunguses and Kamchadales,' says Ernan,*' ' a matrimonial engagement is not definitively arranged and concluded until the suitor has got the better of his beloved by force, and has torn her clothes.' Attacks on women are not allowed to be ivenged by blood unless they take place within the yourt or house. The man is not regarded us to blame, if the woman ' has ventured to leave her natural place, ' the sacred and protecting hearth.' Pallas observes ' StoppoP of the Caspian, p. L'59, Asia, p. .'523. Riirncs' Travels in Quoted in M'Lennan's PrimitiAe Bokhara, pp. 11, fi6. Mavriago, p. 30. •' Travels in Siberia, vol. ii. p. ^ Travels, vol. i. p. 332. See 442. See also Kames' History of also VambtU'y's Travels in Central Man, vol. ii. p. 58. MOXGOLS^KOBEANS—ESQ UIMA UX. 113 that in his time ' inarrianc by caj)ture prevailed also ' among tlie Samoyedes.' * At present the custom is for the bridegroom to tap the lather and the mother of the bride on the shoulder with a small stick, — the last trace of an ancient reality.^ Among the Mongols,^ when a marriage is arranged, the girl ' Hies to some relations to hide herself. The ' bridegroom coming to demand his wife, the father-in- *law says, " My daughter is yours ; go, take her wher- ' " ever you can find her." Having thus obtained his ' warrant, he, with his friends, runs about searching, ' and, having found her, seizes her as his property, and ' carries her home as it were l)y force.' Marriage by capture, indeed, prevails throughout Siberia. In Kam- skatka, says Miiller, ' attraper une iille est leur ex- ' pression i)our dire marier.' ^ ' In the Korea, when a man marries, he mounts on 'horseback, attended by his friends, and, having ridden ' about the town, stops at the bride's door, where he is ' received by her relations, who then oarry her to his ' house, and the ceremony is complete.' ^ Traces of the custom also occur in Japan.® Among the Esquimaux of Cape York (Smith Sound), according to Dr. Hay es,*^ ' there is no marriage cere- ' mony further than tnat the boy is reciuired to carry ' off his bride by main force ; for, even among these M ' Vol. iv. p. 97. See also Ast- rEnipire de Russia, pt. ii. p. 80. ley's Collections of Voyages, vol. iv. See also pt. i. p. 170; pt. iii. pp. p.'576. 38,71. '^ Seebobm, Siberia in Europe, ^ Ibid. p. .342. p. 74. '' Le Japon Illustre, vol. ii. p. 3 Astley, vol. iv. p. 77. 1.".0. '' Dca. de toutes les Nations de ' Open Polar Sea, p. 432. I , ,nt '■, '■ ic : i ■HI " ' i 1 ii; 1 tl :: '■ ■ < '■ . '■ \ ' ■t * . ! : 1 JL.j 114 NORTU AMERICA. ' Ijlubbcr-eating people, tlie woman only saves her ' modesty by a sham resistance, althouf^h she knows ' years beforehand tliat her destiny is sealed, and that 'she is to l)eeome the wife of the man from whose 'cml)races, when tlie iuii)tial day comes, she is obliged 'by tlie inexoraljle law of pu])lic opinion to U'vii herself ' if possibh', by kicking antl screaming with might and ' main, until she is safely landed in the hut of her future ' lord, when she gives up the combat very cheerfully * and takes possession of her new abode.' In Greenland, according to Egede, ' when a young ' man likes a maiden, he commonly proi)Oses it to their ' parents and relations on both sides ; and after he has ' obtained their consent, he gets two or more old women ' to letch the bride (and if he is a stout fellow he will 'fetch her hhuself). They go to the place where the ' young woman is, and carry her away by force.' ^ We have already seen (p. 101) that marriage by capture exists in fidl force among the Northern Ked- skins. Further south in California, ' when an Oleepa lover • wishes to marry, he first obtains permission from the ' parents. The damsel then flies and conceals herself ; ' the lover searches for her, and should he succeed in ' finding her twice out of three times, she belongs to him. ' Should he be unsuccessful, he waits a fcAV weeks and ' then repeats the })erformance. If she again elude his ' search, the matter is decided against him.' ^ Among the Mosquito Indians also, after the wed- ' Hislory of Greenland, p. 143. Crautz, Hist, of Greenland, vol. i. p. 158. * Bancroft, Native Races of tbe Pacific States, p. 389. so UTH A M K inCA — FK FJEEA NS. 115 the (linretend to try to rescue her.' The ahoripe?-s.' Williams mentions that among the Feejeeans the custom prevails ' of seizing upon a woman by a[)parent ' or actual force, m order to make her a wife. On ' reaching the home of her abductor, should she not ' approve of the match, she runs to some one who can ' Loc. cit. p. 733. ^ Travels in the Amazons, p. 497. » Vol. iii. pp. 277 and 22. * Voyago of the ' Adveuturo' iiiul Bea^rle,' vol. ii. p. 182. ;■ '^1 r-J 'VI ■■'.'Ml i m ■••■'{: ■■■■■[ '■■■wSM I 2 no I>(fLY.\l']SIAXS. • J i I !■■ ; ■-1 * protect her ; if, however, slie is satisfied, the matter is ' settled forthwith ; a feast is <^iven to iier friends tlie ' next niorninn;', and llie cniiplc are thenceforward con- ' sidered as man and wife.' ' Karle'^ *»'ives the followinj'* account ol' iiiiirn{i'''e in New Zealand, wliich he re^jjards as * most exti'aonUnary,' while in reality it is, as we now see, nothing- of the sort : — ' The New Zealand method -^f courtship and ' matrimcmy is,' he says, ' most extraordinary ; so much ' so that an ohserver could never imaj^ine any affecilcn ' existed between the parties. A num sees a woman ' whom he fancies he should like for a wife ; he asks the ' consent of her fjither, or, if an orphan, of her nearest ' relation ; which, if he obtains, he carries his " intended " * off by force, she resisting with all her strength ; and, ' as the New Zealand girls are generally pretty robust, ' sometimes a dreadful struggle takes place ; both are ' soon stripped to the skin ; and it is sometimes the ' work of hours to remove the fair prize a hundred ' yards. If she breaks away she instantly flies from her ' antagonist, and he has his labour to commence again.' Even after a marriage, it is customary in New Zea- land to have a mock scuffle. Mr. Yate ^ gives a good illustration. There was, he says, ' a little opposition to ' the wedding, but not till it was over, as is jilways the * custom here. The bride's mother came to me the ' preceding afternoon, and said she was well pleased in ' her heart that her daughter was going to be married ' to Pahau ; but that she must be angry about it with * her mouth in the presence of her tribe, lest the natives )i 174. * Fiji aud tlie Fijiaus, vol. i. p. - liesideiice in Now Zealaiul, p. •JU. 3 Yato's New Zealand, p. 00. i' rniLlVVlNE ISLANDEllS—XJjaiilTOS—AFIilCA. 117 * hIiouM coino and take away all licr possossions, an:. ;|lf f '•'ri' I' 'i. 1 ,' *!. .i I:.;." I l V } i'i ;1 \i 120 POL A XD—Jl US SI A —nUJTAIN. * the married couple are to travel to tlieir home.* ' MTiennan states that in some parts of France, down to the seventeenth century, it was customary for the hride to feign reluctance to enter the bridegroom's house. In Poland, Lithuania, Russia, and parts of Prussia, according to Seignior Ga^^-a,^ yoi^^^ J^fi^n used to carry off their sweethearts ])y force, and then apply to the parents for their consent. Lord Kames,i^ in his ' Sketches of the History of ' Man,' mentions that the following marringe ceremony ^vas, in his day, or at least had till shortly before, been customary among the Welsh : — ' On the morning of the wedding-day the bridegrDom, accompanied by his friends on horseback, demands the bride. Her friends, who are likewise on horseback, givo a ]wsitive refusal, on which a mock scuffle ensues. Th( bride, mounted behind her nearest kinsman, is carried off, and is pur- sued by die bridegroom and his friends, with loud shouts. It is not uncommon on such an occasion to see 200 or 300 sturdy Cambro- Britons riding at full speed, crossing and jostling, to the no small auuise- ment of the spectators. When they have fatigued themselves and their horses, the bridegroom is suffered to overtake his bride. He leads her away in triumph, and the scene is concluded with feasting and festivity.' In European Turkey Mr. Tozer tells us that 'the Mirdites never intermarry ; but ^hcn any of tliem, from the highest to the lowest, wants a wife, he carries off a ^Mahometan woman from one of the neiuLbourinn- ' M'Leuiian, loc. cit. p. 33. -' Mairiago Ceienionics, p. 35. See also Olaus Magnus, vol. xiv. chapter ix. •■^ nisto)'v of Man, vol. ii. p. GO. ' ;. had ' o lURLANn-liENGAL-VmUPPINES. 121 ' tribes, baptizes her, and marries her. The parents, we ' were told, do not usually feel miioh aggrieved, as it ' is well understood that a sum of money will be paid 'in return.' ' Sir II. Piers says that in Ireland, after a marriage had been arranged, ' on the day of bringing home, the ' brideffroom and his friends ride out and meet the bride CD ' and her friends at the place of meeting. Being come 'near each other, the custom was of old to cast short 'darts at the company that attended the bride, but at 'suc'li distance that seldom any hurt ensued. Yet it is 'not out of the memory of man that the Lord of Iloath ' on such an occasion lost an eye.' - To these instances many others might have been a-lded, as for instance the natives of Sumatra, the ]\Iaj)uclics, Bushmen, &c. In all these cases the girl is carried off by the man ; but amonu* the Garos of Ijcngal we find a similar custom, only that it is the bridcgroojn who is carried off. He pre- tends to be unwilling and runs away, but is caught by the fi'icnds of the bride, and vhen taken by force, ' in s[)ite ' of the resistance and counterfeited m*ief and lamenta- ' tion of his parents, to the bride's liouse.' '' So also among the Aliitas of the Philippine Islands, if her parents will not consent to a love match, the girl seizes the young man by the hair of his head, carries him off, and declares she has run away Avitli him. In such a case it appears that marriage is held to be valid, Avhether the parents consent or not.^ ' The lliglilauds of Turkey, vol. i. p. .'518. ^ Dt'sor. of Westraeath. Quotod Ijy M'Lennan. I 11 ^ Bonwick, The Tasmanian.'H, p. 71. ■• Dalton, Descr. Ethn. of Bengal, .^ -I ii ^ ' ' p. G4. i ^^ ■<^:l if- ■ i 122 WIDE RANGE OF MARBIAQE BY CAPTURE. Thus, then, we see that marriage by capture, either as a stem reality or as an important ceremony, pre- vails in Australia, among the Malays, in Hindostan, Central Asia, Siberia, and Kamskatka ; among the lilsquimaux, the Northern Redskins, the Aborigines of Brazil, in Chili, and Tierra del Fuego, in the Pacific Islands, both among the Polynesians and the Feejee- ans, in the Philippines, among the Kaffirs, Arabs, and Negroes, in Circassia, and, until recently, throughout a grejit part of Europe. I have already referred to the custom of lifting the bride over tlie doorstep, which we find in such distinct and distant races as the Romans, the Redskins of Canada, the Chinese, and the Abyssinians. Hence, also, perhaps, our honeymoon, during which the bridegroom keeps his bride away from her relatives and fi'iends ; hence even, perhaps, as Mr. M'Lennan supposes, the slipper is, in mock anger, thrown after the departing bride and bridegroom. The curious custom which forbids the father-in-law and the mother-in-law to speak to their son-in-law, and vice versa, which I have already shown (p. 12) to be very widely distributed, but for which no satisfactory explanation has yet been given, seems to be a natural consequence of marriage by capture. When the capture was a reality, the indignation of the parents would also be real ; when it became a mere symbol, the parental anger would be symbolised also, and would be continued even after its origin was forgotten. ^ ' I am glad to see tliat Mr. Ilowitt's Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. Morgan is disposed to adopt this 16. suggestion. In trod, to Fison and MARRIAGE BY GONFARREATIO. 123 The separation of husband and wife, to which also I have referred (p. 75), may also arise from the same custom. It is very remarkable, indeed, how y^ersistent are all customs and ceremonies connected with marriage. Thus our ' bride cake,' which so invariably accompanies a wedding, and which miM ahcaijs he cut hy the bride, may be traced back to the old Roman form of marriage by ' confarreatio,' or eating together. So also among the Iroquois, bride and bridegroom used to partake to- gether of a cake of ' sagamite,' ^ which the bride offered to her husband. The Feejce Islanders ^ have a very similar custom. The marriage ceremony in Samoa, says Turner, ' reminds us of the Roman confarreatio.' ^ * Confarreatio ' also exists among the Karens and Bur- mese. * Again, among the Tipperaas, one of the Hill tribes of Chittagong, the bride prepares some drink, ' sits on her lover's knee, drinks half, and gives him the ' other half ; they afterwards crook together their little ' {in<2:ers.' ° In one form or another a similar custom is found among most of the Hill tribes of India. A very similar custom occurs in Xew Guinea ; * among the Samoyedes, and in Madagascar also, part of the mar- riage ceremony consists in the bride and bridegroom eating out of one dish. ^ Among the Chuckmas (a tribe residing among the Chittagong hills) the bride and bridegroom are bound towther with a muslin scarf, and then eat touether.^ ' Lafitau, vol. i. pp. 5G0, 571. ^ Fiji and tlit3 Fijians, vol. i. p. 170. * Nineteen Years iu Polynesia, p. 180. * MOIahou, The Karens of the G. Chersonese, pp. 322, 350. " Lewin's Hill Tracts of Chit- tagong, pp. 71, 80. Daltou'a Doscr. Ethu. of Bengal, p. V.K). ® Gerland's Con. of Waitz' An- throp., vol. vi. p. 03.3. ' Sibree's Madagascar and ita People, p. 193. « Lewin, Wild Tribes of South- eastern India, p 177. \^ mi mi I'r 'i'i' "ml l^uX '•■':'•>' \ . t ' ■* , ] '' '••''*> '-' " •■[»'.■ I - ' sn M '. ^■.■'..■■•!i-'? c 1 t,/ h 4 '^ •,: i B'l " El'iS [1 V « i ill i^* ]1 V>i MAUli'TAGE JiY CAPTURE. Here also I must mention the curious custom of boy-mtirriai^es, under wliicli a i«irl is legally married to a mere boy, who is vegnrded ns the father of her children, while she herself lives with some one else, generally the father of her nominal husband. This arrangement is found among some of the Caucasian tribes, in parts of llusjsia, among the Reddies in South India, and the Chibchas of New Granada. It has not, I think, been satisfactorily explained. i\Ir. MTiCnnan conceives that marriage by capture arose from the custom of exogamy, that is to say, from the custom Avhich forbade marriage within the tribe. Exogamy, again, he considers to have arisen from the l)ractice of female infanticide. I have already indicated the reasons which prevent me from accepting this ex- l)lanation, and which induce m.e to regard exogamy as arising from marriage by capture, not marriage by capture from exogamy. Mr. M'Lennan's theory seems to me quite inconsistent with the existence of tribes which have marriage by capture and yet are endoga- mous. The i'edouins, for instance, have marriage by capture, and yet the man has a recognised right to marry his cousin, if only he be willing to give the price demanded for her.^ Mr. M'Lennan, indeed, feels the difficulty which would be presented by such cases, the existence of which he seems, however, to doubt ; adding, that if the symbol of capture be ever found in the marriage ceremonies of an endogamous tribe, we may be sure that it is a relic of an early time at which the tribe was ' Ivlenmi, Allgeiu, ('iilttir' jiisch, vol. iv. p. 110. EXPIATION FOR MAUKIAGE. 125 organised on another principle than tliat of exogamy.^ Another objection to his theory is the presence of marriage by capture with polygamy. That marriage by capture has not arisen merely from female coyness is, I think, evident, as already mentioned, firstly, because it does not account for the resistance of the relatives ; secondly, because it is con- trary to all experience that feminine delicacy diminislies with civilisation ; and thirdly, because the very question to be solved is why it has become so generally the cus- tom to win tlie wife by force rather than by persuasion. It leaves moreover entirely unexplained the case men- tioned on p. 121, in which the man, not the bride, is captured. The explanation which I have suggested derives additional probability from the evidence of a general feelmg that marriage was an act for which some com- pensation was due to those whose rights were invaded. The nature of the ceremonies by which this was effected makes me reluctant to enter into this part of the subject at length ; and I will here therefore merely indicate in general terms tlie character of the evidence. I will firstly refer to certain details given by Dulaure'*^ in his chapter on the worship of Venus, of whicli he regards these customs merely as one illustration, although they have, I cannot but think, a signification deeper than, and different from, that which he attributes to them. We must remember that the better known savage races have, in most cases, now arrived at the stage in wliich Daternal ri<>lits are recomiised, and lience that w > n t^ \:h '■fyM m •'m^ ^p^^ "' '. n Kfi ' u W] ■i i ^^tH % *ii* • ;ls ife» m ■ill , .'* -A I ■'■■*•' '■ I |:;'.'.i>*l ' Lot: cit. p. 53. ^ Iliat. abro''ce dcs dill". Cultes. -Jf:..- ''^' ii j n ! t 1 'i 1 M 4^ I'i I' ll i li: ,( ■ I'll ^1 H.' r 126 TEMPORARY WIVES. fatlicrs can and do sell thei' daiiuliters into iiiatriniony. Tlie price of a wii'c is ol' course rcfrnlated by ilio circuinstancGS of the trihc, an.l every, or nearly eveiy, industrious youn<( man is enabled to buy one for liiiu- self. As lonti:, liowever, as communal niarriiiije riul)ts were in force this Avould be almost itu[)ossible. That special marriage was an infringeuient of these com- munal rigiits, for which ^ome compensation was due, seems to me the true explanation of the offerings which vin^ins wore .so generjilly compelled to make before being permitted to marry. ^ The same feeling, probal)ly, gave rise to the curious custom existing, according to Stralio,^ among the (i*ar- thian) Tapyrians, that when a man had two or three children by one wife, he was obliged to leave her, so that she might marry some one else. There is some reason to suppose that a similar custom once prevailed among the Romans ; thus Cato, who was proverbially austere in his morals, did not think it right permanently to retain his Avife Martia, whom his friend liortensius w^ished to marry. This he accordingly permitted, and ]\Iartia lived with liortensius until his death, wdien she returned to her first husband. Tlie high character of Cato is sulHcient proof ^hat he would not have permitted this, if he had regarded it as wrong ; and Plutarch expressly states that the custom of lending wives existed amon;>' the Ivomans. Akin to this feeliuir is that which induces so many savage tribes ^ to provide their guests with temporary wives. To omit this would ' See Appendix. Pi)lym'siaiis, Australiaus, Berbers, ' Stnibo, ii. pp. 515, 520. ICasteru and "\Vt .«tei'n Nejrroes, * For instance, the Esquimaux^ Arabs, Abyssiuiaiis, Kallirs, Mongols, North and South American Indians, Tutaki, &c. EXOQAMY. m be regarded as (jiiite inliospital)le. The practice, more- over, seems to recomise the existercc of a ri«;ht in- herent in every member of tlie community, and to visitors as temporary mein])ers ; wliich, in the case of the latter, could not bo abro i V ti28 /i'.Yor^jj/r. * ^jiniy ' — that, imiiicly, of iiccussarily inai'rying out of tlio trilM!. T'-lor, wlio also (.'ailed particular attention to tills L'usloin in liis iiitcrestin;:* work on 'The I'.arly * History of Man,' which was piiblislud in the very same year as AI'Lcnnan's ' Priiiiitive Marria<;c',' thoiin^ht that ' the evils of marrying' near relatives might be the ' main rnvnind of this series of restrictions.' Mori'an ' also considers exogamy as ' ('X])lainable, and oidy ex- ' j)lainable, as a reformatory movemciil to break up the ' interuiarriage of bio d relations,' and which could only be eifected by exogamy because all in the tribe were regarded as related. We cannot however attribute to savages any such farsiglitcd ideas. jMoreover, in I'act, exogamy afforded little protection against the marriage of relatives, and, wherever it was systematised, it \)vv- mitted marriage even between liiilf brothers and sisters, either on the father's ov mother's side, \\ here an obiection (o the intermarriaiic of relatives existed, exogamy was unnecessary ; where it did not exist, exogamy, if this view was correct, could not arise. M'Lennan says, ' 1 believe this restriction on uiar- ' riage to be connected Avith the practice in early times ' of female inl'anticide, which, rendering women scarce, ' led at once to [)olyandry within the tribe, and the caj)- ' tiuinji: of women from without.' - He has not alluded to the natural preponderance of men over W(jmen. Thus, throughout Europe, the [)ro[)ortio]i of boys to girls is as loo to loo.'"' Here, therefore, even without infanticide, we see that there is no exact balance between the sexes, in many savage races, in various parts of the ' 1*1 uc. Aim-r. Actid. of Arts and Scieiicet^, 1800. - Lvc. (it. p. l.'5S. •'' Wnitz* Aiithropolngy, p. Ill, 'I'S, ill) tlie tlic (Ui'KlIX OF EXO(IA}fy 129 world, it lias been ol)servt'«l tlic men an* miuli more iiimuTous, but it is difficult to asci!rtaiii how far this is due to an original difference, and how far to other causes. It is conc'Mvahle that the ditference between endo- gamous and exo«:;anious tribes may have been due to the different proportion of the sexes : those races tend- ing to beconie exoframous where boys prevail ; those, on the other hand, endoii^amous where the reverse is the case.^ I am not, however, aware that we have any statistics which enable us to determine this j)oint, nor do I believe that it is the true explanation of the custom. Infanticide is, no doubt, very prevalent among savatres. As h^ni;', indeed, as men were few in number, enemies were scarce and game was tame. Under these circumstances, there was no temptation to infanticide. V'lere were some things which women could do better than men — some occupations which pride and laziness, or both, induced them to leave to the women. As soon, however, ar in any country i)opulation became even slightly more dense, neighbours became a nuisance. They invaded the hunting grounds, and disturbed the game. Hence, if for no other reason, wars would arise. Once begun, they would continually break out again and again, under one pi'etence or another. Men for slaves, women for Avives, and the thirst for glory, made a weak tribe always ii tem))tation to a strong one. Under these circumstances, feinah; ehihh'cn became a soiu'ce of weakness in several ways. They ate, and did not hujit. They weakened their mothers when young ■ See Das M utterrecht, p. 101). K Ii (' I * If) M V m > .y.i • * t : wtVW m Ic mn I . ' i I -I i>»' I. 4J 180 ORIGIN OF EXOGAMY. : i" and, when <(ro\vn-u|), were ii temptation to .surrounding trilK's. Hence female infanticide in easily accounted for. Yet I cannot regard it as the true cause of exogamy. It does not ai)pear to have been so general as Mr. M'lA'iinan supposes, nor does it specially characterise the very hjwest races. I cannot then regard as watisfactoty any of the explanations which have hitherto been ])roposed to account for the origin of exogamy. The true solution is, I think, of a different character. We must remem- ber that under the communal system the women of the tribe were all common property. No one could appropriate one of them to himself without infringing on the general rights of the tribe. Women taken in war were, on the contrary, in a diflerent position. The tribe, as a tribe, had no right to them, and men surely would reserve to themselves exclusively their own prizes. These captives then would naturally become the wives in our sense of the term. Several causes would tend to increase the im[)ortance of the se[)arate, and decrease that of conununal, marriage. The im- pulse which it would give to, and receive back from, the development of the alFections ; the convenience with reference to domestic arrangements ; the natural wishes of the wife herself ; and, last not least, the inferior energy of the children sprung from ' in and in ' marriages, would all tend to increase the importance of individual marriage. Even were there no other cause, the advantage of crossing, so well known to breeders of stock, would soon give a marked preponderance to those races by whom exogamy was largely practised, and for several vol. U2. VUEVM.KSCE OF lIXOdAMY—A UsThWI.lA. i\n rensoiiM tlu'rulorc wo nvvA not In* siirpriscfl lo lind cxo- ^luny very prevalent ain(>ii. I. * Eyre's Discoveries in Australia, '' Pritcliard's Nat. Hist, ul' Mau, vol. ii. p. 329. Grey's Journal, p. vol. ii. p. 491. Ridley's Juurn. 242. Anthr. Inst. 1872, p. 203. Lang's ^ The Aboriffinee of Australia, Queensland, p. 383. K 2 id '»,'';>i M ; : 1 J! ; If ; ; : 11 f " 1 I .■ I ; ■« ,' ■ 5 i ■ tj i Li 132 A USTUA LIA— AFRICA. ' IV. Kumbu may marry only matha.^ ' Any attempt to infringe these rules would be ' imanimously resisted, even to bloodshed ; but it seems ' they never dream of attempting to transgress them.' Even if a man has captured a woman in war, he may not marry her if she belongs to a forbidden class. ' I. The children of ipai by kubitha are all muri. ' II. The children of muri are all ippai and ippata. ' III. The children of kubi are all kumbu and ' butha. ' IV. The children of ku: nbu are all kubi and ' kubitha.' The natives of West Australia and Port Lincoln are divided into two great clans, and no man mjiy marry p woman of the same clan.'^ So also in New Britain the natives are divided into two classes, and marriage between persons of the same clan is thought very dis- reputable.^ In Eastern Africa, Burton ^ says that ' some ckns of ' th^ Somal will not marry one of the same, or even of ' a consanguineous family ; ' and the Bakalari have the same rule.*'' Du Chaillu,*^ speaking of Western Equatorial Africa, says, ' the law of marriages among the tribes I have * visited is peculiar ; each tribe is divided into clans ; * I have slightly altered tlie spell- ing of these names, as suggested by Mr. Fison, because that originally given by Mr. Ridley is said not ex- actly to represent the pronunciation, and does not bring out the fact that the sisters' names are merely those of the brothers with the feminine ter- mination * tha.' Matha and Butha are short for Muritha and Kumbutha. ^ Forrest, Journ. Anthrop. Insti- tute, vol. V. p. 317. ^ Brown, quoted in Wallace's Australasia, p. 470. ' First Footsteps, p. 120. ^ Trans. Ethn, Soc, N.S., vol. i. p. li'2l. •^ Ibid. p. 307. a IIINDOHTAN. 13:} * the children in most of the tribes belong to the clan of ' the mother, and these cannot by any possible laws ' marry amon:lect of the ancient usaf][e. A man's ' nearest heirs in this tribe are his sister's chihiren.' ^ The Tsimsheean Indians of British Columbia^ are similarly divided into tribes and totems, or 'crests, ' which are common to all the tribes. The crests are ' the whale, the porjjoise, the eagle, the coon, the wolf, ' and the frog. In connection with these crests, several ' very important points of Indian character and law are ' seen. The relationship existing between penson^ of ' the same crest is nearer thnn that between i.iembers ' of the same tribe, which is seen in this, that membei's ' of the same tribe may marry, but those of the same ' crest are not allowed to do so under any circumstances ; ' that is, a whale may not marry a whale, but a w^hale ' may marry a frog. &c.' Very similar rules exist among the Thlinkeets,^ and indeed, as regards the Northern Redskins generally, it is stated* in ArchiPologia Americana that 'every ' nation was divided into a number of clans, varying in •i ' Ricliavdson'ii lioat Jom-iioy, ■vol. i, p. 400. See also Smithsonian .Hoi)ort, 18GG, p. l\-2(]. '* Metlahkallali, published by tho I'h'ivoh Missionai'v Social v, 1S0',>, p. 0. •' Bancroft, lor. cit. vol. i. p. 100. ■» (lullatin, loo. cit. vol. xi. p. 109. Laiitan, vol. i. p. r>i)S. TannerV Narrativf, p. 313. EXOGAMY IN SOUTH AMEfUCA. V,i7 ' the several nations from three to eight or ten, the ' members of whicli respectively were (lisj>erse(l indis- ' criminately througliont the whole nation. It has beeii 'fully ascertained thjit tlie inviolable regulations by ' which these clans were perpetuated amongst the ' southern nations were, first, that no man could marry 'in his own clan; secondly, that every child should ' belono; to his or her mother's clan.' Among the IMayas of Yucatari, according to Herrera, marriage was forbidden between i)eople of the same name. The Indians of Guiana,^ ' arc divided into families, ' each of which has a distinct name, as the Si/ridi, ' Karimfuj/i, Onisidi^ &c. Unlike our families, these all ' descend in the female line, and no individual of either ' sex is allowed to marry another of the same fjunily ' name. Thus, i. woman of the Siwidi family bears the ' same name as her mother, but neither her father nor ' her husband can be of that family. Her children and ' the children of her daughters will also be called Siwidi, ' but both her sons and daughters are prohibited from ' an alliance with any individual bearing the same name ; ' though they may marry into the family of their father 'if they choose. These customs are strictly observed, 'and any breach of them would l)e considered as ' wicked.' The Ih'azilian races, according to j\[artius, differ greatly in their marriage regidations. In some of the very scattered tribes, who live in small families far remote from one another, the nearest relatives often interuiarry. In more populous districts, on the contrary, ' Brett's Tndian Tribes of (luiiiiia, ]>. 98. • •■ vWt ■ ■ '■►;;■ ■■\ n -! ; -t 'u:\ :m < '%A -. . . , -t \ " . -^'S 1 ' .:A i < hi i h nil t ^ I v,]M IJ I' J I i; I- ' V m J ''■ I.- » ■i ' Jl\ ■■■It : if ^1 • h ' 138 Till': CAUSES OF POLYGAMY . the tribes are divided into families, and a strict system of exogamy prevails. ^ In Mangaia, according to Mr. Gill, in olden times, a man was not permitted to marry a woman of his own tribe.^ Thus, then, we see that this remarkable custom of exogamy exists throughout Western and Eastern Africa, in Circassia, Hindostan, Tartary, Siberia, China, Polynesia, and Australia, as well as in North and South America. The relations existing between husband and wife in the lower races of man, as indicated in the preceding pages, are sufficient to remove all surprise at the preva- lence of polygamy. There are, however, other causes, not less powerful, though perhaps less prominent, to which much influence must be ascribed. Thus in all tropical regions girls become marriageable very young ; their beauty is acquired early, and soon fades, while men, on the contrary, retain their full powers much longer. Hence, when love de[)ends, not on similarity of tastes, pursuits, or sympathies, but entirely on external attractions, we cannot wonder that every man who is able to do so provides himself with a succession of favourites, even when the first wife remains not only nominally the head, but really his confidant and adviser. Another cause lias no doubt exercised great influence. Milk is necessary for children, and in the absence of domestic animals it consequently follows that they are not weaned imtil they are several years old. The effect of this on the social relations has been already referred to {(mfc, p. 81). » Zoc cif. p. (};j. * Savajre Life in Polynesia, p. 130. rOLYANDRY. 131» Polyandry, on the contrary, is far less comii.on, though more frequent than is generally supposed. M'Lennan and Morgan, indeed, both regard it as a phase through which human progress has necessarily passed. If, however, we define it as the condition in which one woman is married to several men, but (as distin- guished from communal marriage) to them exclusively, then I am rather disposed to regard it as an ex- ceptional phenomenon, arising from the paucity of females. M'Lennan, indeed, ^ gives a long list of tribes which he regards as polyandrous, namely, those of Thibet, Cashmeer, and the Himalayan reg on.s, the Todas, Coorgs, Nairs, and various other races in India, in Ceylon, in New Zealand,^ and one or two other i*acific islands, in the Aleutian Archipelago, among the Koryaks, the Saporogian Cossacks, on the Orinoco, in parts of Africa, and in Lancerote. He also mentions the ancient Britons, some of the Median cantons, the Picts, and the Getes, while traces of it occurred among the ancient Germans. On the other hand, to the in- stances quoted by M'Lennan we may add that of some families among the Australians, ^ Nukahivans, "* and Iroquois. If we examine the above instances, some of them will, I think, prove irrelevant. The passage referred to in Tacitus^ does not a^^pear to me to justify us in regarding the Germans as having been polyandrous. ' Loc. cit. p. 180. * I.tifitau, loc. cit, vol. i, p. 555. ■' (u-ylanJ's Waitz' Anthropo- logit', vol. vi. p. 774. ' Ib'^l. vol. vi. p. 128. '•' Gonuania, xx. III ■ 'ml I it,.:',:; 140 I'OLYA NDRY EXdKPTIONA L. it' 11* ! i1' H' VAiniin is correctly referred to by M'T.ennan ns mentioning the existence of ' lawful polyandry in the ' Aleutian Islands.' Tie does not, howe\er, give his authority for the stateiueut. The account he gives of the Koryaks by no means, I think, proves that poly- andry occu'- nmor ; ti em. The case of the Kalmucks, to jut, ^e frotu {])'■ ipcount given by Clarke,^ is certainly one in whiJi !)'(>thLr&, but brothers only, have a wife in common. For Polynesia, M'Lennan relies on the Legend of liupe, as told by Sir G. Grey.- Here, however, it is merely stated that two brothers named Thuatamai and Ihuwareware, having found Hinauri, when she was thrown by the surf on the coast at Wairarawa, ' looked ' upon her with pleasure, and took her as a wife between * them both.' This seems to me rather a case of com- munal marriage than of polyandry, es})ecially when the rest of the legend is borne in mind. Neither is the evi- dence as regards Africa at all satisfactory. The cus- tom referred to by M'Lennan "^ probably originates in the subjection of the woman which is there im])lied by marriage, and which may be regarded as inconsistent with high rank. Several of the above cases are, indeed, I think, merely instances of communal marriage. Lideed, it is evident that where our information is incomplete, it must often be far from easy to distinguish between communal marriage and true polyandry. Polyandry is no doubt wddely distributed in Ceylon, India, and Thibet, and among somc of the hill tribes ' Travels, vol. i. ]). 241. - Polynesian Mytholojry, v. 81. ■' IJeade's Savnge AlVica, p. 43. TJfE 8YS"I']M OF LEVI I! ATE. lU of India. A very pretty l)n|)lilii <^\\'\ once canic into tlie stfition ol' {.uckinijuir, threw herself at Colonel l)alton's fe^t, ' and in most ^oetical lanr()mi.sed hy her father to a man wliom she did not love, and had ' eloped witli her beloved. This was interesting; and ' romantic.' Colonel Dalton sent for the beloved, and, he says, ' the romance was dispelled. She had eloped with ' two young men.'' In Ceylon the joint hiisban'^'< are always brothers,- and this is also the case aiiioi jr • e tribes residing at the foot of the Himalaya^ Mr ^tn. ,, . lUit, on the whole, lawful polyandry (as ( , p )s« i to mere laxness of morality) seems to be an exceptional system, generally intended to avoid the ev . arising from monogamy where the number of women is less than that of men. The system of Levirate, under which, at a man's death, his wife or wives i)ass to his brother, is, I think, more intimately connected with the rights of property than with polyandry. This custom is widely distributed. It is found, for instance, among the ]\Iongols^ and Kaffirs,^ and in Yucatan." When an elder brother dies, says Livingstone, ^ ' the same thing ' occurs in respect of his wives ; the brother next in age ' takes them, as among the Jews, and the children that ' may be born of those women he calls his brothers ' also.' \ < -1. II ' 'i '.] ■'Ih 1-: M'l . !• ' Des. Etlin. of Bengal, p. 36. * Davy's Ceylon, p. 286. ^ Fraser's Tour to the Ilimala Mountains, pp. 70, 206. * Wuttlif's Ges. dor Menscbheit, vol. i. p. 22;i. ■' Arbousset's Tour to the N.E. of tbe Capo of Good Hope, pp. 38, 138. •' Ban-roft, vol. ii. p. 671. ^ Travels in South Africa, p. 185. wmi Ti : 'J i Il ■ 1 .' h < 1 m < I |ii^ '1^ ?^: ■iU •.-• 4 . ,W f !1 i 112 EXDOdAMY. In liidin, amnn^ tlic Nuirs, ' a man always takers to ' wife, by tlie custom called Saj^ai, his elder brother's * widow.' ^ Anion edouins, ' a man ' lias an exchisive rijj^ht to the hand of his cousin,' * and it is the custom of the Karens that ' marriji<;t;s 'must always be contracted by relutions.' ^ Livin«i- stone also mentions that in South Africa the women of the Akombwi ' never internuu'ry with any other ' tribe.' ^ In Guam brothers and sisters used to inter- marry, and it is even stated that snch unions were preferred as being most natural and proper.' En- dogamy would seem to have prevailed in the Sandwich IsUmds,** and in New Zeahmd, where, as Yate mentions, ' great opposition is made to anyone taking, except ' for some political purpose, a wife from another tribe, * so that such intermarriages seldom occur.' ^ Barrow » Lewin'H Hill Tracts of Chitta- gon>r, p. 65. ' liaffles' History of Java, vol. i. p. 328. ^ M'Lounan, loc cit. p. 146. ' Burckhardt's Notos on the }3«'doiiins and Wababvs, vol. i. pp. 113, 27-2. * Morgan, Syst. of Oons. and Ail', of the Ilunian Family, p. 444. •* IjS.1. to the Zambesi, p. 30. ■^ Araj^o's Letters. Freycinet's Voyage, vol. ii. p. 17. » Ihul. p. {»4. '■> New Zealand, p. Oft. TNI': MI IK. Till 115 nioiitions tbut tin; llottcntois scldnin ninrrir'l rmt of tlioir own krnal.' On tlio wliolo, Iiowevor, cndonnmy HeeniK a fjir Ickh common cuHtom tlian o\()«;jitny. The idea of rc'lationsliip as oxistin*:,- amonust iis, foiin(l(Ml on niarna;,f(', and unplyinLT equal connection of a child to its faflici* and mother, seems so natural and obvious that tlicrc arc, ])crhaps, mnny to whom the possibility of any other system has not occurred. The facts already recorded will, however, have |)repare<] iis W^r the existence of peculiar ideas on the subject of relntion- ship. The strength of the foster- feel inir, th(! milk -tie, amon<( the Scotch Highlanders is a fatiiiliju* instance of a mode of regarding relntionshii) very dilleiTnt j'roni that prevalent amongst us. We have also seen that, under the ciistoiu of com- munal marriage, a child was regard('angalas of the Cassanffe vallev, ' the sons of a sister belono; to her 'brother ; and he often sells his nephews to pay his ' debts ; ' ^ the Banyai ' choose the son of the deceased ' chief's sister in preference to his own oif spring.' In Northern Africa we find the stmie custom among the Berbers ;^ Burton records it as existing in the North- i- |:. If •i r\ m '*. 'if ' Smith's Voyage to Guinea, p. 1811. Quoted in Bachofen's Mu^ter- 14;J. See also Pinkerton's Voyaj^es, recht, p. 108. ■» (^aillie's Travels, vol. i. p. 153. IJarth's Travels, vol. i. \\ 'VM ; vol. ii. p. L vol. XV. pp. 417, 421, 528. Astley's Collection of Vovape.i, vol. ii. pp. C3, 256. * Pinkerton's ^'oyages, vol. xvi. p. .331. •' Mt5m. Gdogr. sur I'Egypte et >r:i ■'' Livingstone's Travels in South Africa, pp. 434, 617. '' La Mere chez certains peuples sur quelques coutr^es voisines, Paris, de I'Antifiuiti?, p. 45. M { ' .V.' '..; i(>' ■, lit :: ,::*: ^^ r ' 1 •'. i '; ■ 1 is . • n 1}'. 118 CAUSES AND WIDE DISTRIBUTION OF THE CUSTOM. East ; and on the Congo, according tc Tuckey, the chieftainships ' are hereditary, through the female line, un ' a precaution to make certain of the blood royal in the * succession.' ^ Sibree mentions that the same is the case in Madagascar, where the custom is defended expressly on the ground ' tliat the descent can be proved from ' the mother, while it is often impossible to know the ' j)aternity of a child.' ^ Herodotus ^ supposed that this custom was peculiar to the l^ycians : they have, he says, ' one custom pecu- ' liar to themselves, in which they differ from all other ' nations ; for they take their name from their mothers, ' and not from their fathers ; so that if anyone asks * another who he is, he will describe himself by his ' mother's side, and reckon uj) his maternal ancestry in ' the female line.' Poly bins makes the same statement as regards the Locrians ; and on Etruscan tombs descent is stated in the female line. In Athens, also, relationship through females pre- vailed down to the time of Cecrops. Tacitus,* speaking of the Germans, says, ' Children ' are regarded with equal affection by their maternal ' uncles as by their fathers ; some even consider this as ' the more sacred bond of consanguinity, and prefer it ' in the requisition of hostages.' He adds, ' A person's ' own children, however, are his heirs and successors ; ' no wills are made.' From this it would appear as if female inheritance had been recently and not universally abandoned. Among the Picts also the throne until a ling, ' Tut'krv's }']x\). to lliu liivor Zaire, p. 3(35. - Madagascar UjkI its People, p. l'J2. ^ Olio, 173. ' De Mor. Germ. xx. NEGLECT OF FATEUNAL J? ELATION. U9 late period was always lield by right of the female. In the Irish Legends it is stated that this Avas a condition imposed by Kremon, wlio wlien the Picts were about to invade Scotland suj)plied their, with a\ ives on this condition.^ In India the Kasias, the Kocchs, and tlu; Xairs liave the system of female kinsliip. l>iiclianan '"^ tells us that among the Bantar in Tulava a man's property does not descend to his own children, but to those of his sister. Sir W. Eliot states that the people of Malal)ar ' all ' agree in one remarkable usau^e — that of transmitting: 'property through females only.'*' lie adds, on tlie authority of Lieutenant Conner, that the same is the case in Travancore, among all the castes except the Ponans and the Namburi Brahmans. As Latham states, ' no Xair son knows his own ' father ; and, vice ve}'f<(\ no Nair father knows his own ' son. What becomes of the property of the husband ? ' It descends to the children of his sister.' ^ Among the Limboos (India), a tribe near Darjee- ling,'^ the boys become the property of tne father on his paying the mother a small sum of money, wlien the child is named and enters his father's tribe : <>'irls remain with the mother, and belong to her tribe. Marsden tells us,*^ that among the Battas of Sumatra ' tlnj succession to the cliiefships does not go, in the ' first instance, to the son of the deceased, but to the ' nephew by a sister ; and that the same extraordinary 1 W I ■ ■ ■ s l;'t r. \ m ■'-H in M 1 ' Ferguson, Tlie Irish before the Conquest, p. 129. 2 Vol. iii. p. IG. => Trans. Elbn. Soc.,1800, p. 110. * Descriptive Ethnolopy, \o\. ii. p. 4(?n. ^ Canipbcll, Trims. I'ltlin. Soc, N. S., vol. vii. p. 155. ^' Marstk'u's History of Sumatra, p. ;i7(!. 4 '■' Ji ■ J ^: W-! ;•. i ■ . M' ?r ■I Iji ^: ;M f* :i ^ si .^lUI- ■ -.1 ; ' .vr ,. ;'}:• 1 160 RELATIONSHIP TllltOUdll FEMALES. ' rule, with respect to the property in generiil, prevails * also amongst tlie Malays of tliat part of the island, ' and even in the neiiiflil)ourhood of Padann^. The ' authorities for this are various and unconnected ' with each other, but not sufficiently circumstantial ' to induce me to admit it as a generally established * ])ractice.' Among the Kenaiyers at Cook's Inlet, according to Sir John Ric-iardson, property descends, not to a man's own children, but to tliose of his sister.'^ The same is the case with the Kutcliin,''^ and it is said generally, though not always, among the Columbian Indians.^ Carver* mentions that among the Hudson's Bay Indians tlia children ' are always distinguished by the ' name of the n.other ; and if a woman marries several ' husbands, and has issue by each of them, they are all ' called after her. The reason they give for this is, tliat ' as their offspring are indebted to the father for tlieir ' souls, the invisible part of their essence, and to the ' mother for their corporeal and apparent part, it is ' more rational that they should be distinguished by the ' name of the latter, from whom they indubitably derive ' their being, than by that of the father, to which a ' doubt might sometimes arise whether they are justly ' entitled,' ' Descent amongst the Iroquois is in the ' female line, both as to the tribe and as to nationality. ' The children are of the tribe of the mother. If a ' Ca3Miga marries a Delaware woniiin, for example^ 1. is " d'ildren are De^awares and aliens, unless formally ' P-ottt. Journey, vol. i. p. 40G. ' Sinitlisonian luport, 18G0, j>. ^ Jianrroft, vol. i. p. V.Ki. •' Carver, p. 878. !See alt-o p. 259 ; also ante, p. 100. SUBORDINATION OF PATERNAL RELATION. 15J ' r'ltiiralist'cl with tlie forms of adoption ; btit if a Dcla- *ware marries a i'ayiii;a woman, her ohil. ■^ Morf^an, loo. cil. p. i>'tS. ^ Miiller, GeSidi. il. American. Urrelipionen, pp. 1(57, 539. 111. ■' Hale, United Statct\;lv the idea of relationship throu<^h the father, when oikv ivcognised, might replace that through the mother, we may see in the very curious trial of Orestes. Aiiamemnon, havinf»: been nuirdered by his wife Clytenmestra, was avenged by their son OrojsteN, who killed his mother for the murder of his fatlWr. For this act he was prosecuted before the tri^^un^l of the gods by the lu-innyes, whose function it wa-s to punish those wdio shed the blood of relatives. In his defence, Orestes asks them why they did not P'Unish Clytenniestra for the murder of Agamemnon ; and wdien they reply that usarriage does not constitute l>lood relationship, — ' She was not the kindred of the ' man whom she slew,' — he pleads that by the same rule they cannot touch him, because a man is a relation to his father, but not to his mother. This view, though it seems to u^ so unnatural, wan supported l)y AjxjUo and Minerva, and being adopted by the majority of the gods, W to the n<"<[uittal of Orestes. Ilenre we see tliat the views prevalent on relation- ft! A:l .♦• > u ' i'l I 'I I m ','■ ' I-a(itiur, vol, ii. 11. .107. ■ Oroy's Aui^tralia, vol. ii. i)p. 2l'G, li.'iO. \r,(\ THE PTiESENT SYSTE}r i ■ i ii ship — views by which the whole >*ocial organisation is so profoundly affected — are by no means the same amon«j^ different races, nor uniform at the same histori- cal period. We ourselves still confuse affinity and con- sanf;;uinity ; but into tMs part of the question it is not my intentiim to enter : the evidence brouf^ht forward in the precedinf]^ ])ages is, however, I think, sufficient to show that children were not in the earliest times regarded as rtlated equally to their father and their mother, but that the natural progress of ideas is, first, that a child is related to his tribe generally ; secondly, to his mother, and not to his father ; thirdly, to liis father, and not to his mother ; lastly, and lastly only, that he is related to both. m ! ■ f 167 mm CHAPTER IV. ON THE DEVELOrMENT OF KELATIONSllIl'S. IN the previous c]ia})ter I have (iiscussed tlie ques- tion of marrin^i^e as it exists ainoriii- the lower races of men, and the relation of children to their parents. In the present, T propose to consider the question of rela- tionships in general, and to endeavour to trace u\) the ideas on this suhject from their rudest form to that in which they exist amongst more civilised races. For the facts on which this chapter is based we are mainly indebted to Mr. JMorgan, who has collected a great mass of information on the subject, which has recently been })ublished by the Smithsonian Institution. Though 1 dissent from Mr. Morgan's main conclusions, his work appears to me one of the most valuable contributions to ethnological science which has appeared for many years. ^ It contains schedules, most of wliich are very complete, giving the systems of relationships of no less thiin 139 races or tribes ; and we have, therefore (though there are still many lamentable deficiencies — the Sibe- rians, South Americans, and true Negroes, being, for instance^ as yei unrepresented), a great body of evidence illustrating the ideas on the subject of relationshii)s which prevail among different races of men. ' Systems of Consanguinity and Ailiuity of the Human Family, by L. II. Morgan, 1670. 'Ill 'P: ' ', \J0 IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) O V. '^^ 1.0 1.1 m "^ «f Ki |22 I!? itt ■" 2.0 u WMW IL25 III 1.4 I 1.6 ^m ^: FholQgraphic Sdences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STMET WflSTH.N.Y. 14SM (71«)«72-4S03 \ r<\^ \ 4% ^r 1 < I. !!■ 'J 158 (fN Tiri'J DKVKLOVMEST aF inJ^ATrONSIIII'S. Our own systuin of relation si lips naturally follows from tlio marriage of single ])air.s ; and it is, in its gene- ral nomenclature, so mere a description of the actual facts, that most persons tacitly regard it as neccfsarily general to the human race, with, of course, verbal and unimportant differences in detail. Hence but little in- formation can be extracted from dictionaries and voca- bularies. They generally, for instance, give words for uncle, aunt, and cousin ; but an uncle may be either a father's brother or a mother's brother, and an aunt may be either a father's sister or a mother's sister ; a first cousin, {igain, may be the child of any one of these four uncles and aunts ; but practically, as we shall see, these cases are in many races distinguished from one another; and I may add, in passing, it is by no means clear that we are right in regarding them as identical and ecpiiva- lent. Travellers have, on various occasions, noticed with surprise some special peculiarity of nomenclature which came imder their notice ; but Mr. Morgan was the first to collect complete schedules of relationships. The specifil points which have been observed have, indeed, been generally regarded as mere eccentricities ; but this is evidently not the case, because the principle or prin- ciples to which they are due are consistently carried out, and the nomenclature is reciprocal generally, though not quite without exceptions. Thus, if the Mohawks call a father's brother, not an uncle, but a father, they not only cjdl his son a brother and his grandson a son, but these descendants also use the correlative terms. We must remember that our ideas of relationships are founded on our social system, jnid that, as other 1)1 FF inn: ST s ystems. I'.O 'iecl ply, the It II his the llips her races have very different luil)its and ideas on this siil)- ject, it is natural to expect tliat their systems of rela- tionship woidd also differ from ours. I have in the previous chapter })ointed out that the ideas and customs with reference to marriage are very dissimilar in dif- firent races, and we may say, as a general rule, that, as we descend in the scale of civilisation, the family diminishes, and the tribe increases, in importance. Words have a i>rofound influence over thought, and true family-names prevail principally among the highest races of men. Kven in the less advanced portions of our own country, we know that collective names were those of the tribe, rather than the family. I have already mentioned that among the Romans the ' family ' was not a natural family in our sense of the term. It was founded,' not on marriage, but on power. The family of a chief consisted, not of those allied to him by blood, but of those over whom he exi'rcised control. Hence, an emancipated son ceased to be one of the family, and did not, except by will, take any share in his father's property ; on the other hand, the wife introduced into the family by marriage, or the stranger converted into a son by adoption, l)ecame regularly recognised members of the family, though no blood tie existed. Marriage, again, in Kome, was symbolised by cap- ture or purchase, as among so many of the lower races at the present day. In fact, the idea of marri.age among the lower races of men generally is essentially of a different character from ours ; it is material, not spiritual ; it is founded on force, not on love ; the wife ' See Ortolan's Justitiiaii, p. 120, et geq. m ■ i| ^ I'm t ■ ■'44 I • '*4 - 1 100 DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OF UELATWKSUIVS. ril is not united with, but enslaved to, her liusljand. Of such a system, traces, and more than traces, still exist in our own country : our customs, indeed, are more ad- vanced, and wives enjoy a very different status in reality, to that which they occupy in law. Among the Hedskins, however, the wife is a mere servant to her hushand, and there are cases on record in which hus- band and wife, belonging originally to different tribes, have lived together for years without either carin<»- to acquire the other's language, satisfied to communicate with one another entirely by signs. It must, however, be observed that, though tlie licdskin family is constituted in a manner very unlike ours, still the nomenclature of relationsliii)s is founded upon it, such as it is, and has no relation to the tribal system, as will presently be shown. Mr. Morgan divides the systems of relationships into two great classes, the descriptive and the classifieator\', which he regards as radically distinct. The first, he says (p. 12), 'which is that of the Aryan, Semitic, and Uralian families, rejecting the classification of kindred, except so far as it is in accordance with the numerical system, describes collateral consanguinei, for the most part, by an augmentation or combination of the primary terms of relationship. These terms, which are those for husband and wife, father and mother, brother and sister, and son and daughter, to which must be added, in such languages as possess them, grandfather and grandmother, and grandson and granddaughter, are thus restricted to the ])rimary hey are here employed. All other idary. Each relationship is thus sense in which terms are secoi m iide Of it in ad- \ in tlic her hiis- ibes, |r to icate the 111 ike nded ribal into tory, t, he , and dred, jrical niobt the v^hieh )ther, diich ;heni, and mary other made ■a ,'«!; m. ■■*« F^i-^ ■Pi I ! Nl I J • > ■ ' ; .'< 'I UNSHIPS. llAWAIUJJ Motlier'H brotlior 8on . son's son, M.S.« F.H. • „ grauilHon Fatlier's slstor Parent male Brother, E. or Y.f ( 'hiUl iimlo (Miild male Uraudchildmalo Taront female RISC' Father Brothoi Child n Cliild 11 Urondc Mother son . son's son, M.S. F.S. , „ grandson Father's brother „ son s son, M.S. II II II •• f* ■ • „ .1 11 grandson Motlicr'ri sister „ „ son 3 son, M.S. PS.. II II i» " "•"' ' I grandson Grandfather's brother . „ sister Brotlier's son, M.S. „ II i'.s. Sister's son, M.S. F.S. Brother's son's son bister's son'si on Brother, E. or Y. Brotlici Cliilil ninlc I Child n Chilli mnlo I Child n Grandchild male ^ Grande Parent female Father 11 TOSOAS R> Uncle Uncle Cousin ? ? ? Cousin Hun Grande Aunt Father Couiin ? Brothc Sou Brother, E. or Y. Child lunlo Child iiinlo Graiiili'hild nuilc Parent male Brother, E. or Y. Child male Child mule Brothc* Y. Child II Child n Grtuidc Mother Brothcnt the '.second — wliich is that of the Turanian, American ' Indian, and Mahiyan families, rejectin'X descriptive ' phrases in every instance, and rediicinj^ consan«^uinei 'to great chisses by a series of a})parently arbitrary 'generalisations, applies the same terms to all the ' members of the same class. It thus confounds re- ' lationships, which, under the descriptive system, are 'distinct, and enlarges the signification both of the ' i)rimary and secondary terms beyond then* seemingly ' approi)riate sense.' While, however, I fully admit the immense difler- ence between, say, our English system and that of the Kingsmill Islanders, as shown in Table 1.^ opposite, they seem to me to be rather the extremes of a series than founded on different ideals. Mr. Morgan admits that systems of relationships have undergone a gradual development, following that of the social condition ; but he also attributes to them great value in the determination of ethnological aflfini- ties. I am not sure that I exactly understand his views as to the precise bearing of these two conclu- sions in relation to one another; and I have elsewhere''^ given my reasons for dissenting from his interpretation of the facts in reference to social relations. I shall, therefore, now confine myself to the question of the bearing of systems of relationships on questions of tbhnological affinity, and to a consideration of the manner in which the various systems have arisen. ' I have constructed this table in a manner wbicli .-cenis to me from Mr. Morgan's schedules, select- more instructive than that adopted ing the relationships which are the by Mr. Morgan, most significant, and arranging them "^ Jour. Anthr. Inst. vol. i. M :::"H = ,;«J Taiuj: I.— systems or K'KLATI* 1 9 3 4 a U 7 ti U 10 llAW.MHV KlNOHMIIX Twn.MdCNT.M.S IlliXjl ll|^ MiCMAfrt Ul'llMMtK J.M'A.NKfK .Sti'oii'l little liilliir Itiolher, E.or Y. Ni-jilii-w lirunilsoii WvvMii/rj Unelt! CoiihIu Son '' I'pilCW (iruiiil^utl T.\MII Fkkjkkw Mollicr's lirotlicr . „ „ HUH . „ „ hiiirn will, >r.s.« !••>*.• ., ., „ jfrttiiil-oii riireiit miilo Urotlior, K.orY.t child liialii ChiM mult' liraiuicbilil nmlo FalliiT Ilri.iln:'. K.orY. ciiilil nmlo Chilli iiialo (jnaulcbilil nialu Uncle Urotlic-r, E. or Y. Son Son (iraiitlHon Undo Uroilior, K. or V. Son .St'phcw (Jranilchiltl I'atlit'i-, (I. or l,.t III' iiiii'lt- ItiiiihtT, E. or Y. Niphi'.v 't UiaiiilchiUl Until' Cousin Nfpli ".v Still •! (iraiiiUoll Uiiolo ('•iQ«ln Nephew Si.||«l Oiaiulsiiii I'uUar'h sisUr Tarcnt fomiilc Motlitr Motla-r Aunt .Aunt, (J. or L. Liltli- iiiother, or iiiiiit liiothii', E.or Y. XejihfW V Cnilhlsiill Aunt Aunt Aunt „ „ sou . „ ,, 3^- . „ ,. ^'rIln■l*lM nrcthor, K. or Y. (Miilil iiiiih' ChiM mall- ei ruiulchlM niiilt' Iirotlii'i-, E. or Y. ( hiM r:,ulo (hill mall- Gr.iii'kliiUI male Prolher, E. or Y. Son .S)n (iraliilson lin.thur, E.or Y. Son .Ni'jilit'W (jriiiiilchilil lirotlitr, E. or V. NiplifW ? (IruiidchiM Cousin .Son Son (iraiiilHoii CtiiiHin Nephew Son linilulBIHI Coiwln Nephew Son (Iramlsoii I'utlicr'rt brotliur . rart'iit female I'atlar I'atlier Littli' father l-'athi-r, (i, oi Li. Litth' fatlier. or Father Kathir, (i. or 1.. Father „ „ •"in ,, „ Mill's RCIII, .M.S. K.^'. . ,. ., .. gruudMiii Urothcr. K. or Y. ChiM iii.'ilo ChiM iii:ili> (iraiuU'lilM inaK' lirothtT, K. t)ry. ChiM iialo Chill mule (iraiiikhild mule Dnitber, E. or V. .Son Son (iniinlsoii Iiitithcr, E. or Y. .Son Ni'ph-'W (IraiiilebiU lirothi'i', E. or Y. Nepht'W '1 (iraiulchilil I'.ioilnT, E.or Y. Nephiw •i (iraihlsoi) liroihir, E. or Y. Son Son (il'lllld80ll Brothel', E. or t Hon Nephew UraiiiiHim Urntlicr, E. o .Son .Niphew Orumltion Mot!it'r'.< si.strr „ soil . ., „ SDn's HUH, M.H. K..S. . ., ,. „ KnimlHon I'arcnt iimlo ItrotliiT, E. or Y. Chilli mall' Chilli niiilr Oi-aniK-liiM inalo Motliir Mi.ther llritthi -, E. t.r Y. Ilrotbir, K. or Y. ciiiM 1 lale Sun ( hli 1 Mall- Sun (jraiitliliiltl male Uruuilson Liitlt'inoiiier llrotlier, E. or Y. Son Ni'pht'w Uramlchilil Motlur, CJ. or I.. Itrothcr, E. ari'iit ft'iiiiilo ( lilM male ChiM mah' ChiM malt' ChiM mall' (IraiiilrhiM liinh' tirallilrhilil mall' Oraniluiotlicr (iraiulniothcr GramlUiothcr Uniiulniuther (iranilmothcr (liiiii'liiiiiihir (iraii'lmothei Briitliur's Hon, .M..S. . I I'.S. . ; .sisiiT'8 son, ^^.s. . . 1 .. ,. K..S. . . IJrutlnr's Sim's sou . . ; Si-tcr's sun's; on Chilli imlo chlM male (hiM iiale ChiM nah- (iniii'lthilil male Cniii'U liiM mah' Sou .S. .-^Oll Son Sou .-on V Father Hrolhtr Une Chil (in (ira ( ; la dm ( I ra ;\UI1 F.itl Fat! Full latl latl [Tu flier i>injv IHI. MS OF JtKLATlONSIIll'S. Tauii. 10 I'KKJKKW r Y. r r. l/'nfli' Ni'pli.'W Soil •( (>l'Utl(lll(l|| Aunt ( 'oils! II Nl'|)Iil'W Son (Iniiulgoii Kathi r, (i, or I.. Brotlur, E. or V Soil Ni'lilicw Cli'aiiil.iDii .Mother llrotliir, K. or Y. Sill) Ni plit w [ (iratiiUoii ; (Iriindfiitlicr (iiiiiiiliiiiillar Son N(|i1m'W Nr|ihcw Son (iriiiiilson liriuiii Undo ( I'liiiin \l'|>IH'\V S..M«I (iiaiulsiiii Aunt CiMiHln Ni'|i|ifW Smi Oriindson Fatlior II T'lNfJAX rnde CuUKill V ? ? Aunt CoUfill ? ? rutiii't Bnitlicr, E. or V. Ilnitliur Son >•>» \i |plii'W li'iy (iratnlgun ilr.iinlgon Mother Mntl.d' llrotJicr, E. i.r Y. Iin.tlior I > III Neph' w (iraiitl*)!! finiiidffithor l!i'aii'liniitlii'r Son NepllOW Nephew S^n (Iriiulsoii (Irainlson I hon boy 12 K/KI III (iraiiilfatlicr (jraiiilmotlior I Son Ne|ihew I NephOiV I lluy I (llMlllsdll (iranilai'n Undo Coiwla Hon y Grondcbl!'! Futbor Urothor, I", or Sou limmlthiM Undo Urother, E. or Son ? lirnmUhil'l Aunt Ttrotlic;, v.. or Sun CirandchiM (inimlfatlier limmliiiotlier Son Son Son Sin (inimh liiM (iiaiulclillil l.< Mi'lll'. \N Y. Uihk' stnpliroiher Stc|.e|,||.| Step, .liiil (irill|i|Mn|l Steimiother ~ti plirnther ^lepflliil.l Stipeliild nn (iiiiiidson 10 (IIIIIWA (Take Michi^'aii) (Tnelo t'oiisin Conxln step-on hl( pKoll Nephew I Neplu'W (iian-lfhild Diaudehild Aunt I Aunt Coiishi ( ottsin Stepson stepson Nephew Ni'phew (irimdcliild Gniiiddiild Stciifrtther Ptcpfntlier Brot'ipr, E. or Y. Stephrotlicr Steprton SK'psoll Nephew Nephew (iranJdiild (iriindchilil I Stepmother Stepmother Hrother, E. or Y. Stfpbrotlier Stepson Stepson Nephew Nejilu'W (irundchild ; Oraiidehlld Oraiidfather (irandniother Stejison ! Nephew ' Nephew I Stepson i (iraii'lehild I (Jralidihild I 17 Undo ('oiikIii Nepliew ? OrundHon Aiuit ( 'onsin Nephew y Qrandson Unelo Cousin Nephew Grandson Aunt Coiisin Nephew Nephew lirandsoii I Ornndfatlier (irandraothcr Stepson Nephew Nephew Ste|i8on Uraiidehild Ciraiiiloliild I Ekijuimaix (NiirthiinilM'rland K.MlKN Inlet) Uncle ( nuxln Nephew N.'pheW • irauduhild Aunt ('(itVl.l NopheW Nephew iiranddilld Unole Coufiin Nephew Nephew 1 1 randuhild Aitnt I j Cousin Nephew Nephew (Iralideliild Cirandfather ( ; ramlfather Qranilmothcr i (Imndmother Nephew Nephew Nephew Nephew (Irandson (iratidsoii Neplu w Nepliew Nejihew Nephew (inindehild (irandohild The TeUign and I'aoarese snlixtantially iigrn- wilu ihe Tan.il. *\ Ivi'-rhtifii Aioeriean raoe-- u).'ree with the Tamil nml Keejecan on this point. EMS OF KELATIONSHIPS. 7 H 10 n 12 13 14 lo ;iMj;I.IlA.\ 0.ill;\VA I'VWMCK 'in AND rAWNCI < HKIiOKl:K JiAli K fJ.MAlIA SaWK AM) Fi)X OSKIDA OlAWA (I.uki' Superior) le fnele Clielo Mother's irotl ■r I'llelo I'liele Clieln Cnele Cnele 1 ( liil'l Child Cousin Cnele Undo Cousin ( oiisiii Cousin idson (Jn.iiilrhild (in.Bdehild Son Cli.'le Cnele Son Stepson sti pson idson • iraiidcl i|.l (Iraiideliild y Clli-le Cii.'le Sr.li Nephew Nephew idsoii 'liild 'iraiiileliild Son Ihtiiher. E. or Y. ISroth'T. v.. or V. Ni j.hew Nephew Nephew idson CraiKlriiiid • iiiindeliil,! Son Ihotlii r. i;. 1)1- V. lirutlier, K. or Y. Son Son Ste|«hild lew (iiandehild tiniiidchild (irandson Ciu-le 1 iiele lirandsoii (iiandehild (iraiideliild ler Mother Aunt Annt Aunt A nnt Mother Aunt Aunt ler Kilt her Father Consin Neiilieu Neplu'W ( oiisin ( oii'-in Consin her rather Fatlier Bon Ci-iiiid.hild (1 raliileliilcl Sou St< psoii St(p>on her h'atlier Father Son llraiidciiild (iiiindeliild Son Nepli w Nephew I'r Mrotl er I'atlier Son (Iniiideliild 1 iiandehild Ni pliew Nephew Nepliew er I'.i-otl.r I'ather 1 Son Craiidcliild (iraiideliild Son Son Stepehild r-.'*j f: ^ '! .'■' 1 "'" ; . ! ^ i; 1 „''^;' ( • •• ■r V .u 11 ' 102 NATURi: OF Tin: kvidksce. As ini^^ht nntiirally liavc ])Con cxpocto*!, Mr. Morgan's infbnn.'itlon is most full and comjjlcto witli rcftTcnce to the Xortli Aincricnn Indiiins. Of tlicsc, lio \(\\qs the terms for no less tluiii 2(ir * rclationsliip. These seconilarv fa- ' and motlier respectively ; and it is ' titers and mothers seem often to be ' only by asking distinctly of jK'r.sons 'regarded with little lesfl afl't'ction 'whether they are " of one father " 'than the actual parents.' — Sibree'a ' or are " uterine brother and sister," Madagascar and its People, p. 102. * that we learu the exact degree of M 2 iV'- ■ kil 1 "it* ■;:! .i^ 'f m 104 amiLAiaTim oi>' .si>TAMf tioiisliip. Aiiioii;:^ the Tcluj^iiHaTHl TmnilM nil older tuny juldnss a yoim^tT hy iiuiiu', but a y<)iin«::('r must always UKi' till' ti'nu lor r('lati()ijslii|) in spcakiii^^ to an elder. TliLs eii.stom is, pn)l)al)ly, connectcMl witli the curiouH Huperstitions about names ; but, however it nuiy have arls(.'n, the result is that an Indian addresses his nci^^h- ))our as ' my father,' 'my son,' or 'my brother,' as the ease may be : if not related, he says, ' my friend.' Thus the system is ke|)t up by daily use ; nor is it a men; mode of e.\|)ression. Althou;4'h, in many respeets, opposed to the existin«^ customs and ideas, it is, in some, entirely consonant with them : thus, amon<^ many of the Iiedskhi tribes, if a num marries the ehlest girl in a family, he can claim in nujrria«^e all the others as they successively come to maturity; this custom exists amon^^ the Shyennes, Omahas, lowas, Kaws, < )say no imaiis cnnsonniit, in all respects, U. the present soelnl conditions of tiie races in question ; nor does if ayree witii tril»al allinifies. riic American Iinlians nreiierally follow the ciiston» of exo- j^mny, as it has been called by Mr. M'licnnan, that in to say, no on(! is pennittctl to marry within tlie clan ; and, as descent HTf^'s in the female line, a man's brother's son, thoufji'h called his son, belon;(s to a different clan ; while his sister's sou does belong:; to the clan, thoiiji'h he is regarded as a nephew, anion of this system over the American contineiit, and its presence also in India. ' The several hypotheses,' he says, ' of accidental 'concurrent invention, of borrowing frojii each other, 'and of spontaneous growth, are entirely inade(puite.' ^ With reference to the hypothesis of independent develop- ment in disconnected areas, he observes that it pos- ' sesses both idausibility and force.' It has, therefore, he adds, ' been nuide a subject of not Ic careful study ' and reflection than the system itself. Not until after 'a patient analysis and comparison of its several forms ' upon the extended scale in which tliey are given in 'the tables, and not until after a carefid consideration 'of the functions of the system, as a domestic institu- *tion, and of the evidence of its mode of propagation 'from age to age, did these doubts finally give way, and ' the insufficiency of this hypothesis to account for the ' See, for instance, pp. 157, y*J2, y94, 421, 400, etc. '^ Loc. cit. p. 495. f^- .f/r;... * t.h M, .» 'i. ■■•." %\ 1G6 REDSKIN AND TAMIL RACES. *i Tr III '•;- I. * origin of the system many times over, or even a second * time, became fully apparent.' And again, ' if the two families — i.e. the Redskin * and the Tamil — commenced on separate continents in *a state of promiscuous intercourse, having such a * system of consanguinity as this state would beget, of * the character of which no concei)tion can be formed, * it would be little less than a miracle if both should * develop the same system of relationsliip.' ^ He con- cludes, then, that it must be due to ' transmission with ' the blood from a common original source. If the four ' hypotheses named cover and exhaust the subject, and * the first three are incapable of explaining the present 'existence of the system in the two families, then * the fourth and last, if capable of accounting for its * transmission, becomes transformed into an established * conclusion.' ^ That there is any near alliance between the Redskin and Tamil races would be an ethnological conclusion of great importance. It does not, however, seem to me to be borne out by the evidence. The Feejeean system, with which the Tongan is almost identical, is very instructive in this respect, and scarcely seems to have received from Mr. Morgan the consideration which it merits. Now, columns 9, 10, and 11 of Table I. show that the Feejeean and Tongan systems are identical with the Tamil.^ If, then, tliis sunilarity is, in the case of the Tamil, proof of close ethnological affinity between tliat race and the Redskins, it must equally be so in ' Loc. cit. p. 505. Australia the system appears to Lo ' Ibid. See also p. 407. very similar. ' 111 some parts, at any rate, of MALAYAN^i—FEEJEKAKS. 1G7 reference to the Feejeeans and the Ton (O 172 THE HAWAIIAN SYSTEM. i-i t^ • but also his mother's sister and father's sister. There are, in fact, six classes of parents : three on the male side, and three on the female. The term, my elder brother, or younger brother, as the case may be,^ stands also for my Mother's brother's son, Mother's sister's son. Father's brother's son, Father's sister's son, while their children, again, are all my grandchildren. Here there is a succession of generations, but no family. We find here no true fathers and mothers, uncles or aunts, nephews or nieces, but onl}^ Grandparents, Parents, Brothers and sisters. Children, and Grandchildren. This nomenclature is actually in use, and, so far from having become obsolete, being in Feejee combined with inheritance through females, and the custom ^^ im- mediate inheritance, gives a nephew the right to take his mother's brother's property : a right which is frequently exercised, and never questioned, although apparently moderated by custom. It will very likely be said, that though the word ' son,' for instance, is used to include many who are really not sons, it by no ' Among the Australians, near for brother and sister always iuvoh o Sydney, * brothers and sisters speak the distinction of elder or younger.' of one another by titles that indicate — Ridley, Journ. Anthr. Inst. vol. relative age ; that is, their words xxvi. p. 26G. "fp THE UAWAIIAN SYSTEM. 173 means follows that a man should regard himself as equally related to all his so-called ' sons.' And this is true, but not in the manner which might have been // priori expected. For, as many among the lower races of men have the system of inheritance through females, it follows that they consider their sister's children to be in reality more nearly related to them, not only than their brother's children, but even than their very own cliildren. Hence we see that these terms, son, father, mother, &c., which to us imply relationship, have not strictly, in all cases, this significance, but rather imply the relative position in the tribe. Additional evidence of this is afforded by the re- strictions on marriage which follow the tribe, and not tlie terms. Thus the customs of a tribe may, and con- stantly do, forbid marriage with one set of constructive sisters or brothers, but not with another. The system shown in column 2 is not apparently confined to the Sandwich Islands, but occurs also in other islands of the Pacific. Thus, the Kingsmill system, as shown in column 3, is essentially similar, though they have made one step in advance, having devised words for father and mother. Still, however, the same term is applied to a father's brother and a mother's brother as to a father ; and to a father's sister and a mother's sister as to a mother : consequently, first cousins are still called brothers and sisters, and their children and grandchildren are called children and grandchildren. The habits of the South Sea Islanders, the entire absence of privacy in their houses, their objection to sociable meals, and other points in their mode of life. t^l i -a I 'I ^}'k.: vjii : ; ft'' :-''^m 17 1 AMERICAN bYSTEMS. I ' Iiavc i)r<)l)al)ly favoured tlie survival of a very rudo system, though tlie nomenclature is not in aceordancc with tlicir present social and family relations, but in- dicates a time when these were less developed than at present. We know as yet no other ])art of the world where the nomenclature of relationships is so primitive. Yet a near approach is made by the system of the Two-Moiintain Iroquois, which is, perhaps, the lowest yet observed in America. In this tribe a brother's children are still regarded as sons, ar d a woman calls her sister's children her sons ; a man, however, does not regard his sister's children as his children, but dis- tinguishes them by a special term ; they become his nephews. This distinction between relationships,, Avhich Ave regard as identical, has its basis in, and is in accord- ance with, American marriage customs. Unfortunately I have no means of ascertaining whether these rules prevail among the tribes in question, but they are so general among the Indians of North America that in all probability it is the case. One of these customs is that if a man marries a girl who has younger sisters, he thereby acquires a right to those younger sisters as they successively arrive at maturity.^ This right is widely recognised, and frequently acted upon. The first wife makes no objection, for the work which fell heavily on her is divided with another, and it is easy to see that, when polygamy prevails, it would be uncom- plimentary to refuse a wife who legally belonged to you. Hence a woman regards her sister's sons as her sons ; they may be, in tact, the sons of her husband : any other hypothesis is uncomplimentary to the sister. * Arcbaeol. Amer. vol. ii. p. 109. A MEIiWA N SYSTEMS. i;5 i?: |}.'I 'riirou^^hout the North American races, thiTcfore, we shall find that a woman calls her sister's children her children ; in no case does she term them nephews or nieces, though in some few tribes she distinguishes tlit'in from her own children by calling them step- children. Another general rule in America, as elsewhere, is that no one may marry within his own clan or family. It has been shown in the previous chapter that this rule is not only general in North America, but widely preva- lent elsewhere. The result is, that as a woman and her l)"otlier oelong to one family, her husband must be c losen from another. Hence while a man's father's brother and sister belong to his clan, and his mother's .sister, being one of his father's wives, is a member of the family — one of the fire-circle, if I may so say — the mother's brother is necessarily neither a member of the fire-circle nor even of the clan. Hence, while a father's sister and mother's sister are called mother, and a father's brother father, in most of the Redskin tribes the marriage rules exclude the mother's brother, who is accordingly distinguished by a special term, and in fact is recognised as uncle. Thus we can understand how it is that of the six classes of parents mentioned above, the mother's brother is the first to be distin- guished from the rest by a special name. It will, how- ever, be seen by the table that among the Two- Mountain Iroquois a mother's brother's son is called brother, his grandson son, and so on. This shows that he also was once called 'father,' as in Polynesia, for in no other man- ner can such a system of nomenclature be accounted for. All the other relationships, as given in the table, I" i4 ■.''•■i4ii 170 THE MICMAO tiYSTKM. 8 are, 1^ will be Hccn, identical with those recognised in the Hawaiian and Kin^sniill .system. Thus, in two re- spects only, and two, moreover, which can be satisfac- torily explained by their marriage regulations, do the Two-Mountain Iro((uois differ from the l^icific system. It is true that these two points of difference involve some Others not shown in the table. Thus, while a woman's father's sister's daughter's son is her son, a man's father's sister's daughter's son is his nephew, because his father's sister's daughter is his sister, and his sister's son, as already explained, is his nephew. It should also be added that the Two- Mountain Iroquois show an advance, as compared with the Hawaiian system, in the terms relating to relationships by nuu*- riage. The Micmac system, as shown in column 5, is in three points an advance on that of fhe Two- Mountain Iroquois. Not only does a man call hk sister's son his nephew, but a woman applies the sarae term to her brother's son. Thus, men term their brother's sons ' sons,' and their sister's sons ' nephews ; ' while women, on the contrary, call their brother's sons ' nephews,' and their sister's sons ' sons ; ' obviously because there was a time when, though brothers and sisters could not nrarry, brothers might have their wives in conrmon, while sisters, as we know, habitually married the same man. It is remarkable also that a father's brother and a mother's sister are also distinguished from the true father and mother. In this respect the Micmac system is superior to that prevailing in most other Redskin races. For the same reason, not only is a mother's brother termed an uncle, but the father's sister is no i riiH Miryr.n' sYs'n:}r. 177 Iniiocr cmIIccI a iiiotluT, Ik'Hih' (li>liiiLiui.s|MM| Wy a .spccljil tcnii, mid lliiis Im'coimcs an aiiiit. Tlu' social ljal)it> of tlic! Itcdskins, which have ah'cady hccM hrirlly aUiidcd to, siitH(!iciitly cxphiin wliy the father's sister is thus (nstiiii»nisli(!d. whih; the fatlier's hrother and iiiotlier'.s sister are still called respectively father and iiioiher. Moreover, as \vv found ainonijf tlu; Two-Mountain Iro- (juois that althon;;h the mother's hrother is recoMiiised as an nncle, his son is still calKMl hi-other. thus pointini^ hack to a time v/hen the father's hrothei* was still called lather : so here we see tliat thoMu*h the father's sister is callcfl aunt, lier son is still n^^'arded as a hrother ; iiulicatinu: tlie existence of a time when, amouii' the Mic- mjics, as amouL,^ the Two-Moinitain Iroquois, a father's sister was termc'd a mother. It follows as a conse(juence that, as a father's hrother's son, a mother's hrother's s(»n, a fatlier's sister's son, and a niothei-'s sister's son, are considered to be brothers, their children are terme(l sous by the males ; ])ut as a woman calls her brother's son a nephew, so she applies the same term to the sons of the so-called lu'others. ]f the system of relationshi)) ))e subject to gradual ^u;rowth, and approach step by step towards perlection, we should naturally expect that, from differences of habits and customs, the vari(Mis advances would not auioni;* iill races follow one another in precisely the same order. Of this the ^licmacs and \\ yandots atlord ns an illus- tration. While the latter have, on the whole. n;;ide most progress, the former are in adv;uice on one jioint ; for thoujrli the Miemacs have distiniiuished a ftither's brotlie:* from a father, he is among the Wyandots still termed a father ; on the other hand, the \\ ytiudots call N ■I * ■ ^, n >'fk 11 1 D ' Wf m i1 1 i. I .-■t . , d hi 17H iwiiMEsi: AXh J.i/M.v&'.s/'; systnms. II iiiutlu'r'H hrotlicr's son ii coiifslu, wliilt; aiiioii;«- tiiL' Mic- iniics he is still tt'niicd a hrotlicr. Ilcri! wt' iiiiiy coMvt'iiiciitiy coiisiilcr two Asiatic iiatiniis — lilt' I'mii'iiicsc and tlic .lapaiu'sc — wliicli, tliMiiMJi oil (lie wiiolc cMMisiilci'aiily niont advaiKtcd in civilisation than any of tlit; lorc^^oiiin- races, yet appear to he sin;;ii- larly Wackvvanl in tlieir systems of family nomenclalnre. I will commenc(! with the ihirmesc. A mother's hrotluu' is called either father (;;'reat or little) or uncle ; his son is regarded as a hr(»ther ; his «;ran<>n. A mother's sister is a mother (^'reat or little) ; her son is a hn»ther ; her ^randM)n a uephew ; and her j;reat-;;i'andson a ^'rands(»n. (Jrandfathcrs' brothers and sisters are i^nnnlfathers and j^randniothcrs. Brothers' and sisters' sons and dau«'iitcrs are reco^^nised as nephews and nieces, whether the speaker is a male or feniale ; hut their children a<^ain are still classed as grandchiUlreii, Amoni»' the Japanese a mother's brother is called a ' second little father ; ' a father's sister a ' little mother ' or ' aunt ; * a lather's brother a ' little father ' or ' uncle ; ' and a mother's sister a ' little mother ' or ' aunt.' The other relationships shown in the table are the same as among the Biu'mese. The Wyandots, descendants of the ancient llurons, are illustrated in the eighth column. Their system is somewhat more advanced than that of the Micmacs. Till': wvAMxrv sYsriiM. 170 AVliilc, Jiinon;^' the latter, a iiiotlicr's hrntlicr's xm, "ml a failu'r's nistor's son, nn- calii'd UrotluTH, amniiHf tliu \Vyau hrnUicrs. A sccojiil mark of pro^ri'ss is, that wnnu'ii regard tlu-ir iiiotlur's brutliur'H grandsons as lu'plicws, an!' umdiis and amit'» Juv still, in all cast's, termed <;randson«. 1 crave partiewlar attention to this system, which may lie regarded as the typical system of the lledskins,^ althongh, as we have seen, some trihes have a ruder nomenclature, and we shall presently allude to others which are rather mure advanced. A mother's brother is termed uncle ; his son is a cousin ; h|s grainlson is termed nephew when a woman is speaking, son in the case of a male. In either case, his grandson is termed irrandson. A father's sister is an aunt, and her won a cousin ; but her grandson ami great-grand.son are termed, respectively, son and grandson, thus reminding us that there was a time when a father's siater was re, garded as a mother. A father's brother is called father ; his sou, brt)tlier ; his grandson, son ; mid his great- grandson, grandson. A mother's sister is a mother, her son is a brother, her grandson is called nephew by a female, son by a male ; her great-grandson is, in either casi', called ' The I'eruviaii system apjMMrd, Leon very similar, in some of its fnuii iho vocabularies given iu most csstMitial fuaturus, to lluit of Mr. Olumenls Markham'8 (iuichua the Wyuudots. Oraiuinar and Dictionary, to have n2 TT^ 1 VBJI 1 1 mf m' . 1 I » i < 1 if- ml ..•n J^St . >• I ' . ^ r ■ i^ jT^; natmii,- 180 THE TAMIL AND FEEJERAN SYSTEM. ■ ; it ..■P A- .) ■ "• ^"s 1 f- . ffraiKlsoM. A uniiKlt'jitlicr's hrotluT and sister arc c.illeil ji^raii(llatlu;r and iirandmollicr ivspuctivt'ly. A brother's son is called son by ii iiialt', and nephew by a female, while a sister's son is called nej)hew by a male, and son by a female, the reasons for which have been ali'eady explained. Lastly, brothers' son's sons ami daughters, sisters' son's sons and dani>hters, are all called grandsons and granddaughters. 'JMius we see that in every case the third n'encration returns to the direct line. The two following columns re[)resent the Tamil and Fcejeean system, Avith which also that of the Tonga Islands very closely agrees. I have already called at- tention to this, and given my reasons for being unable to adopt the explanation suggested by ]Mr. ^lorgan. It will be observed that the only t to distinguish these relationshi[)s. Taking, for instance, the line which gives the terms in use for a mother's brother's grandson, we find the following, viz. son, stepbrother, grandson, and grand- child, stepson, and nncle ; in the case of a father's sister's grandson (male spejiking), we have grandchild, son, stepson, brother, and father ; when a female is speaking, grandchild, son, nephew, brother, and father. Thus, for this single relationship we find six termi* in use, and a difference of three generations, viz. from grandfather to son. At first the use of such terms seems altogether arbitrary, but a further examination will show that this is by no means the case. Colunni 2 gives the system of the Kedknives, one of the most backward tribes on the American continent as regards their nomenclature of relationships. Here, though a mother's brother and a father's sister are, respectively, uncle and aunt, their children are regarded rf W ! ,!l '^ifi^ !. !•;■ 'V:^ I. - >'U II r-^r.4| ■y^ 182 EXriAXATTON OF THE TERMS. jii 'm ': 1 5 : I *i fts bi*ot]iers, their grnndoliildron ns sons, and tlioir great-grandcliildron as f^randsons. Tlio Miinsco s)^'^toln shows a slight advance. TIere, though the women call their sister's sons their sons, the males, on the contrary, term them nephews, and, consequently, ap])ly the same term to their Inother's brother's danghter's son, and their father's sister's daughter's son ; because, as in the preceding case, mother's brother's danghters, and father's sister's daughters, are termed sisters. The IMicmacs (column 8) show another step in advance. Here, not only does a man call his sistei^'s son nc[)hew, ])ut, in ad- dition, a woman a})plies the same term to her 1,rother'8 son ; consequently, not only a mother's l)rother's daughter's son, if a male is speaking, but a mother's brother's son's son, if a female is speaking, and the corres[)onding relations, on tlie side of the father's sister, are teiMned nephews. Among the Delawares a mother s brother's son, and father's sister's son, are distinguished from true brothers by a term corresponding to ' ste})brother.' They appear to have also felt the necessity of distinguishing a step- brother's son from a true son ; but, having no special term, they retain the same word, thus calling a step- brother's son a stepbrother. This principle, as we shall see, is followed by several other tribes, and has produced the most strikiui** inconsistencies shown in the table. We find it again among the Crows, where a father's sister is called mother, her daughter again, mother ; but as her son cannot of course be a mother, he is called * father.' The same system is followed by the Pawnees, as shown in columns 7 and 8 ; and the Grand Pawnees carry it a generation lower, and call their father's SYSTEM OF THE OMAHAS. 183 sister's grandson on the male side ' father ; ' a fatlier's sister's dangliter's son is, liowever, calU'd a brotlier. Among the Cherokees we find this principle most thoroughly carried out, and a father's sister's grandson is also called a father. This case is the more interestinii', because the circumstance which ])roduced the system is no longer in existence ; for, as will he seen, a father's sister is called an aunt. It is not at iirst obvious that a father's sister being called a mother would account for her son being called a father ; but, with the Crow and Pawnee systems before us, we see that the Chero- kees could not call their father's sister's sons ' fathers,' unless there had been a time when a father's sister was re2:arded as a mother. The Hare Indians supply us with a case in which mother's brothers and father's sisters beinjj distin- guished from fathers and mothers, their children are no longer termed brothers, but are distinguished as cousins ; while their grandchildren and great-grandcliildren, on the contrary, are still termed sons and grandsons. So far as the relationships shown in the table are concerned, the system of the Omahas, and of the Sawks and Foxes, is identical. A mother's brother is an uncle, and, for the reason already pointed out in the case of the Delawares, his sons and son's sons, and even son's jifrandsons, arc also termed ji^randsons. 11 is daughter's sons, on the contrary, retain the old name of brother. A father's sister is an aunt, her children are nei)hews, and the descendants of these nephews are grandchildren. Among the Oneidas, a father's brother is an uncle, and his son is a cousin ; his son's sons, however, are I, r ImH. -r, M 184 SYSTEM OF THK OS EI DAS. OTAWAS. J: '■ \'M still sons. His djuiglitcr's son is a son, when a female is speaking ; but, for tlie reason already explained in the case of the Munsees, males term them ne})hews. The relationships comiected with a father's sister are dealt with in a similar maniu!r, exce})t that a father's sister is still called mother. The Otawa system resembles the Micmac, and is formed on the same plan, being, however, somewhat more advanced, inasnnich ;is the children of uncles and annts are recognised as cousins, and a man calls his cousin's son, not his son, but his ste])son. The ()ji])wa system is the same, except that a woman also calls her mother's brother's daughter's son, and father's sister's daughter's son, her stepson, instead of her son. In some of the reljitiouslii})s by marriage the same causes have led to even more striking differences. Thus, a woman wnerally calls her father's sister's daughter's husband her brother-in-law ; but among the Missouri and Mississippi nations her son-in-law ; aniong the Minnitarces, the Crows, nnd some of the Chocta clans, her father ; among the Cherokees, her stepparent ; the Republican Pawnees, and some of the Choctas, her grandfather ; and among the Tukuthes, her grandson ! Having thus pointed out the curious results to which some of the lower races have been led in their attem])ts to distinguish relationshi[)s, and endeavoured to exphiin those shown in Table H., I will now return to the nijiin argument. The KafHr (Amazulu) system is given in colunni 12, Table I. Here, for the first time, we find the father's Ijrother regarded as an uncle, and the mother's sister as an aunt. In other respects, fliowever, the THE KAFFIR SYSTEM. 185 system is not more advaiicctl than the Tamil, Feejcejin, or Wyandot. Tlie motlier's lu'othcr is called uncle ; ^ his son, cousin ; his i»Tands()n, son ; and liis «;'reat-«;Tand- son, f^randchikl. A father's sister, quaintly enough, is called father, the KafHr word for which, iihtiha, closely resembles ours. His son, however, is called brotlier ; his grandson, accordingly, son ; his great-grandson, grandchild. A father's brother, as already mentioned, is uncle ; but, as before, his son is called brother ; his grandson, son ; and his great-grandson, grandson. So, also, a mother's sister is an aunt, but her son is a brother ; her grandson, a son ; and her great-grahdson, a grandson. As in all the preceding cases, grand- fathers' brothers and sisters are considered as, re- spectively, grandfathers and grandmothers, lirothers' sons and sisters' sons are called sons, and, lastly, their sons ao-ain are ^'randsons. Excepting in the case of nei)hews, this system, therefore, closely resembles the Tamil, Fecjeean, and Wyandot ; the other principal differences being a more correct nomenclature of uncles and aimts. Colunm 13, Table I., exhibits the nomenclature in use amoni>' the ^lohegans, whose name siouiHes ' sea- side people,' from their geographical position on the Hudson and the Connecticut. They belong to the great Algonkin stock. Here, for the lirst time, a dis- tinction is introduced between a father and a i'nther's brother. The latter, however, is not recognised as an uncle ; that is to say, a father'^ brother and a mother's brother are not regarded as ecpiivalent relationships. '.V'; !..:>i ' It is, however, sigiiliioant that lie calls liis sister's suns ' soiih,' and not nephews. .. ?• 1 1 IRG MOTTFGANS. CJtEES. CnirPEWAS. Vl m ii ft but tlie former is termed stepfatlier. Tliis distiiif^nisli- infj; ]>refix is tlie (3liaracteristic feature ; and, as will be seen, we finrl the terms stepmother, stepbrother, and ptepcliild (to tbe exclusion of cousin), as natural con- sequences of the stepfathership. Still, the mother's sister remains a mother, and her son a l)rotlier ; and the derivation of this system from one similar to those already considered is, moreover, indicated by the fact that tbe members of the third generation are still refrarded as grandchildren. The Crees and Ojibwas, or Cbippewas (of Lake Michigan), who also belong to the great Algonkin stock, resemble the ]\Iohegan in the use, thoiigli with some minor differences, of the prefix ' step-', a device which occurs also in a more complicated form among the Chinese. In some points, however, they are rather more advanced, and, in fact, these tribes possess the highest system of relationship yet recorded among the Redskins of North America. A mother's brother is an uncle, and bis son is a cousin ; as regards his grandson, the tendency to the use of different terms, according as tbe speaker is a male or female, shows itself in the use by the former of tbe term stepson, where the latter say nephew as in some of the ruder tribes. In botb cases, mothers' brothers' c;reat-oTandchildren are called errand- children. A father s sister is an aunt, and the nomen- clature with reference to her descendants is the same as in tbe case of the mother's brother. A father's brother is a stepbrother ; his son is still called a brother by males among the Crees, but is called stepson by the Ojibwas ; the other relationships in this line being the same as in the case of the mother's brother and father's sister. i . }' ^ •• ■ •!, SUMMAT^Y OF 17FDSKTX SYSTEMS. 187 No rJedskin rounrds liis inotlior's sister ns ati nulit ; l)iit tlio Croos and <)ji])wns distin 1 :* 'l': are said to be Sanskrit as roffards their words ; abori- fi^iual, on the contrary, in tlielr nraniniar. Hindi contains 00% of Sanskrit words, Gujeratbi as mncli as !)')'/«. With tln*ee orfonr exceptions, it appears that the terms for relationsliip may l)e all of Sanskrit origin. Here, for tlie first time, we find that a brotlier's son and a sister's son are termed nephews, whetlier the speaker is a male or a female. Yet nephews' children are still termed grandchildren. Again, for the first time, the mother's brother, fathei*'s brother, mother's sister, and father's sister are regarded as equivalent, and the terms for their descendants are similar. The two former — i.e. mother's brother and father's brother, are termed ' nncles ; ' the two latter — i.e. mother's sister and father's sister, arc called aunts. Yet, as regards the next generations, the system is less advanced than the Ojibwa, for uncles' sons, and aunts' sons are termed brothers ; their grandsons, nephews ; and their great- grandsons, grandsons. It should, however, be observed that, in the first three languages, viz. the Hindi, I'cn- gali, and Marathi, besides the simple term ' brother,' the terms ' brother through paternal uncle,' ' brother through i)aternal aunt,' ' brother through maternal uncle,' and ' brother throuuh maternal aunt,' are also in use, and are less cumbersome than our English literal translation would indicate. The system, therel'ore, is transitional on this point. Lastly, a grand fiither's brother is called ' grandfather ; ' a grandfather's sister, ' grandmother.' The Ilarens are a rude, but peaceful and teachable race, inhabiting parts of Tenasserim, Burmah, Siam, and extending into the southern parts of China. They A'. I R i:XS. i:sQir[MA fix. I8i> liavo ])Gcn on 'rt);ii;ln;>l iipDii jutl .siihjt; -h' 1 l»y more powerful iMcos, anil art' now divided into dill'erent tnl)es, sj)eakin!^ different dialects, of wliieli three are ♦"•iven in Mr. Moru'an's tables. Tlioii<''li rnde and savau;e in their mode of life, tliey are (leseril)^d as extremely moral in their social rehitions — praise wliieh seems to be corrol)orated by their system of relati<»ii- ships, as shown in column 17, Table I. Colunm IS sliow.s the system of another rude people, beloni^iui,^ to a distinct family of the human race, and inhabitini^ a distant im I very different [)art of the world. Like the Karens, the I'^scjuimaux are a rude people, but, like them, they are a ((iiiet, peaceable, and moral race. No doubt on some points their ideas differ from ours ; their condition does not admit of much refinement — of any jj^reat advance in science or art. They cannot be said to have any relii^'ion worthy of the name, yet there is, perhaps, no more moral people on the face of the earth ; none amoni^ whom there is less crime ; and it is, perhaps, not goin<^ too far to say that there is, as far as I can juduv, no race of men which has more fully availed itself of its ojjportunities. It is most remarkable to find that these two races of men. so distinct, so distant, so dissimilar in their modes of life, without a word in connnon, yet usini;- systems of relationship which, in their essential features, are identical, although by no meiuis in harmony with the existinix social condition : in both, uncles and aunts are correctly recognised, and their children regarded as cousins ; their grandchildren, however, are termed nephews, and the children of these so-called nephews are classed, as in all the previous cases, as grand- .1.- ■■ t !■ -1 lixt jxiJicATKjxs or i'uu(,'tn:ss. cliildi'L'ii. Tims, (iiit of the t\V('iily-(;i_L'lit ri'liilioiisliips indicated iu tliu table;, tlie Karens and i']s(|niinaiix aiireo wilh us iu twelve, and diller in sixtcien. As regards f!Veiy one, liu\V(!Ver, of these; sixteen they aurec; with one another, whiic! in ein'ht they i'ullow the same system as every other race which we have hcon considerin;^'. Tliese facts cannot Ins tliu result of chance ; there is one way, and, as it seem.** to me, one way only, of uccountiu;^ for theni, anil that is by re^ardiui;* them a> the outcome of a prog'rcssive deveh)[)nicnt, such as that which I have endeavoured to sketch. An examin- ation of the several cases will, J. think, confirm this view. The Karen-Ks(juinuuix system is inconsistent with itself in three res|)ccts, and ^jrecisely where it ditfers from Ours. The children of cousins are termed nephews, which they are not ; the children of nephews are re- jt'arded as i>Tandchihlren, luid a <»rand lather's brothers and sisters are termed, resj>ectively, <^randfathers and j^ran Iniothers. The tirst fact — namely, that a mother's brother's ji'randsons, and a mother's sister' i»i grandsons, a father's sister's grandsons, and a father's brother's grandsons, are all termed ' nephews ' — clearly points to the existence of a time when a mother's brother and a father's brother were rcuarded as fathers, a mother's sister and a father's sister as mothers, and their children, consecpicntly, as brothers. The second — namely, that the great-grand- children of uncles and aunts are regarded as grand- children — similarly points to a time when nephews and nieces were termed, and regarded as, sons and daughters, and their children, consequently, as grandchildren. I'Ml V iX(joMr[,i':Ti:s'i:ss oi' s ystems. i:»i >!.> sn Lastly, wliy should ;j;iMn'lfatli('rs' hrotlu'i's aiiil ^raivl lathers' sisters he called •••raiidfathcrs and ••raiidtiiothers uidess there was a time when lathers' brothers an Karens and Ksquimaux have now a I'ar niore correct system of nomenchiturc than that of many other races, we lind, even in this, clear traces of a time when these peo[)le8 liad not advanced in this res[»L3ct beyond the lowest sta;^e. As already mentioned, the European nations follow, almost without exception, a strictly descriptive system, founded on the marriage of single pairs. The principle is, however, departed from in few very rare cases, an}frj. j:ri:s'i:ss or systhms. jIso iiistniciivc. Tlic word ' ii('|K)s,' siiys I\Inr^iin,' jiiiKUi"^ the IJoiiisius, as late as the loiirlli (•ciiimy, was a|»i»H('('taviaMiis, calls liini tlic ii('|»li<»w of Ca'sar, '• Ca'saris ncjx »s. >» (Lil ). vii. ('. i.) ' SiictoiiiiiK H|K'aks of him art " sororls ncpos " (Ca'sar, ' ('. Ixxxiii. ).aiulafVrr\varl{ice, tlio moral coiidifiotj ot' the lowia* race's, wlicrcviM* we can ascertain it, Is actually lil^'lier tlian that indicaieil hy the j>hrase(,'lo<;y in use ; and, secondly, the systems lheinselv(;s arc, in almost all cases, Inexplicahle, e.\c<'[)t on the hy[)othesis that they were themselves |»reee(led hy still ruder ones. Take, for instance, the case of tlu^ Two- Mountain Iroquois : they call a mother's brother an uncle, hut hi.s son they re<.nird as u brother. This is no accident, for the idea is cjirried out in the other relntions]u[)s, and occurH also in other races. On tlu; thecny of [►roi'resH it is ens ly accounted for : if a father's brother was [)re- viously (ailed a father, his son would, of course, be a brother ; and when the father's brother came to be dis- tin^'uished as an uncle, some time wo'dd, no doubt, often elapse before the other changes, consecpient on this step, would be effected. Jiut how could such a system be accounted for on the opposite theory ? How could ta father's brother's sou come to be regarded as a brother, if a father's brother had .'dways been tinned an uncle ? The sequence of terms for the relationships connected with a father's sister, on the two hy[)otheses of progress on the one hand, and degradation on the other, may l)e illustrated as in the Table III. ([>. IDD). In the first, or lowest stage, the secpience is mot Ik r, brother, son, grandson, as in the Sandwich and Two- i\Iountain Iro(|U()is system. In the next stage, the mother's sister being recognised as an aiuit, and the other relationships remaining the same, we have the sequence, aunt, brother, son, grandson, as among the Micmacs. When a brother's son becomes a nephew i i ' < '! ', . M v.n DKIHTING SYSTEMS INOOMPATLDLE m we have aunt, brother, nephew, grandson, as in the Burmese, Japanese, and Hindi systems. In the next stage, an aunt's son being distinguished as a cousin, we have aunt, cousin, nephew, grandson, as among the Tamils and Fecjees. The hist two stages wouhl be aunt, cousin, aunt's grandson, grandson ; and, lastly, aunt, cousin, aunt's grandson, aunt's great-grandson. Thus, out of these six stages, five at least actually exist. On the other hand, on the theory of retrogression, we should connnence with the highest system : namely, aunt, cousin, aunt's grandson, and aunt's great-grand- son. The second stage would be, mother, cousin, aunt's grandson, aunt's great-grandson. The third, mother, brother, aunt's grandson, aunt's great-grandson. The fourth, mother, brother, nephew, aunt's great-grandson. The fifth, mother, brother, son, aunt's great-grandson. And the last, mother, brother, son, grandson. Thus, it will be observed that, except, of course, the first and last, they have not a stage in common ; and, though there may be some doubt whether the sequence sug- gested on the second hypothesis is the one which would be followed, it cannot be maintained that we could ever have the systems which would occur in the case of pro- gress as shown in Table III., and the first four of which are actually in existence. Whenever, then, the son or daughter of an uncle, or aunt, is termed a brother, as in the case of seven of the races referred to in the table, we may be sure that there was once a time Avhen that uncle, or aunt, was termed a father or mother ; whenever a cousin's son is termed a son, as again in seven races, we must infer, not only that those cousins were once regarded as WITH THE THEORY OF DEGRADATION, 195 brothers, but that brothers' sons were once termed sons. Again, when great-uncles and aunts are termed grandfathers and grandmothers — when great-nephews and nieces are termed grandchildren, as in the case of all the races we have been considering — we have, I submit, good reason to infer that those races must once have had a system of nomenclature as rude as that of the Hawaiians or Kingsmill Islanders. But it may be asked : admitting that the seventeen races, illustrated in Table I., are really advancing, are there not cases of the contrary ? The answer is clear : out of the 139 races whose systems of relationship are more or less completely given by Mr. Morgan, there is not one in which evidence of degradation is thus indi- cated. To show this clearly and concisely, I have pre- pared the following table (p. 196). It will be seen that taking merely the relation of uncles and aunts witli reference to their children, there are 207 cases indicating progress. On the other hand, there are four cases, the Cayuda, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawks, among whom, while a father's sister is called a mother, her son is called a cousin. These cases, however, are neutra- lised by the fact that the sons of these cousins are called sons. We have, therefore, a very large body (jf evidence indicating progress, and collected among very different races of men, while tliere appear to be none which favour the opposite hypothesis. In the preceding cha[)ter, I have endeavoured to show that relationship is, at first, a matter, not of blood, but of tribal organisation ; that it is, in the second stage, traced through the mother j in the third, through the father ; and that only in the fourth stage is the idea -2 i ■ ij - -i 196 EVIDENCE OF PROGRESS. :S oo o o oo OOIO ,rz i""* ;: ^'i a o II II d 13 o -a a Si be o a s-" o * o " II II d O .2 2 'fl — a Oh O 41 o o -d o T3 o o T3 O O -d • !i., o o TS -d o o I I I O o o ■d o o 73 o o o 'd o o o O O O O Q p p ;=i (M O P o p 8 II to a o II o bD O u n o en 13 a o 03 O to SO o o o o p p p p o n3 a 83 a o § 03 8 c4 O 'd o -d o o p p a o :) o en -d to 7J 1) To o ;-! 93 a •-3 o o -d ■U o -d o -d o -d o -d o nd o 'd o -d o nd o o O 'd o o -d o -d o P o 2 => P P o o p p o p o o o p p p o o o '-\ '-> ^ 1-1 I— I I— I o p p o p ■H I u c a -d ,- '^ ^- -d ■/.' V S 93 OS «S " -d O O 'd 53 si •-» St X a U V ttj =- -ri '- '^ b -^ ^ M •/-• Ch 2 iP 2 5P- 2 - 'A J o o a 3 O « a o '■/I en a o ii a "^ a -1-' "^ ^ «^ -fc r^ a !l =5 a a S3 ■u ^ il H ''^ w 3 . — v: tj o :-< 7= Q - ;« - a 1) :- ^ fl ■^ OS ■/• w "p a^:" 3^ o 00-5 f^ i^i iM ^ rt ^ •yj ■/. .^ as £ /* 9 .»! i^ "-t ^ J', i. — •i,VJ^:-==:^2-'^^^:n^1-Ss-l3^,— — .t; ~ ^' " .t; t: * a^ ."S ' fc^ ^ o 33 "5 i <1> ■n K 1- 4) ^ .-a 7} a o 2 P 2 u J S o o c .V' k-l >1 b— I &H K-i »ffi S -ix % II -- ^t -d t 3 ■?? *; n 3 o NO EVIDENCE OF DEGRADATION. 197 of family constituted us amongst ourselves. To obtain clear and correct ideas on this subject, it is necessary to know the laws and customs of various races. Tlie nomenclature alone, would, in many cases, lead us into error, and, in fact, has oi'ten done so. When checked by a knowledge of the tribal rules and customs, it is, however, most interesting and instructive. Fnjiii this point of view especially, Mr. Morgan's work is of gfcat value. It has been seen, however, that I differ greatly from him as to the conclusions to be drawn from the facts which he has so diligently collected. Of course, I do not deny that tliese facts may, in some cases, indicate ethnological affinities ; but they have not, 1 think, so great an importance in solving questions of ethnological relationships as he su})poses. I do not, however, in any way, undervalue their import- ance ; they afford a striking evidence in favour of tlie doctrine of development, and are thus a very interest- ing and important contribution to the great problem of human history. From the materials which he has so laboriously collected, and for which etluiologists owe him an im- mense debt of gratitude, I have endeavoured to show : Firstly, that the terms for, what we call, relation- ships, are, among the lower races of men, mere ex- pressions for the results of marriage customs, and do not comprise the idea of relationship as we understand it ; that, in fact, the connection of individuals inter sc, their duties to one another, their rights, and the descent of their i)roperty, are all regulated more by the rela- tion to the tribe than by that to the family ; that when the two conflict, the latter must give way. ^ mi ' ^^- )*' t :\-\ 198 CONCLUSION. ^■i . ;., Secondly, tliat tlio nomenclature of relations] lips is, in all tljc cases yet collected, explainable in a clear and simpler manner on the hypothesis of progress. 'J'hirdly, that while two races in the same state of social condition, but of which the one has risen from the lowest known system, the other sunk from the highest, would, necessarily, have a totally different system of nomenclature for relationships, we have not a single instance of such a system as would result from the latter hypothesife. Fourthly, that some of those races which approxi- mate most nearly to our European system differ from it upon points only explainable on the hypothesis that they were once in a much lower social condition than they are at present. In ?;/ SYSTEMS OF UELATTOXSUir 190 c * tlii .'" ?.'■- s 2! C ^^ C *" l» O 0^ o o W H o CM H o H *«) h? O CO h PQ H [>: o H e U O I § s ;3 61. 3 il. ° 9 '2 i pa i c 1 O c *> s I = a o m 1:3 CO c i CG *^ o o o C o O CO Si c a o 02 o m n c3 u O c o o (U ■4-i a o CO »+-«» . 03 P'-» cii ^ .5 iS • 5^; £ S O ^4 *■< * « -- -ffi P? sland Ins is ur sy o W •-^HO H |+^= o bP ^ p; p a p< w 3 cc ^ 1 !Z5 o l-H OJ l-H ,.,si HCCH M 1 •A ^ •4-^ Q' C ?* [/; b-4 C H CJ ^ S X n * ■^ O c S tu fi. ?. « «2 -1 M •M • f c ^.1 ^ i 1^ ■A c 1 o <* o P- ^^. <1 1 1 3?C ' -S o C o en r, c/j ! § -a s 3 ."i C as -^ c3 u c ^^ !S o t(J « tu EH ?S, ^ -< *-; N 1 c ? c c y c - a. r. CO n3 t'-'TJ c ^ c ai e .x c /; i> -u « %- 83 ^ o Q £ ^- S '-' tL 5 tt ?^ C < -^ i t/i J£ tf-il 03 o ■>~ es s t" 3 b •<1 -f! i CO 03 O a c o es o u 03 00 ■»- c o CO 3 O <: ^ ( 4 1 1 I I " f\ 200 CHAPTER y RELIGION. ( ;( 1111 E religion of savages, though of peculiar interest, is in many respects, perhaps the most difficult part of my Avhole subject. I shall endeavour to avoid, as far as possible, anything which might justly give pain to any of my readers. Many ideas, however, which have been, or are, j)revalent on religious matters, are so utterly opposed to our own that it is impossible to discuss the subjecr without mentioning some things which are very repugnant to our feelings. Yet, wliile savages show us a melancholy spectacle of gross su[)er- stitions and ferocious forms of worship, the religious mind cannot but feel a peculiar satisfiiction in tracing up the grachial evolution of more correct ideas and of nobler creeds. M. Arl)ronsset quotes the following touching re- marks made to him by Sekesa, a very respectable Kaffir : ^ ' Your tidings,' he said,' ' are what I want ; ' and I was seeking before I knew you, as you shall 'hear and judge for yourselves. Twelve years ago I ' went to feed my flocks. The weather was hazy. I sat ' down upon a rock and asked myself sorrowful ques- ' tions ; yes, sorrowful, because I was unable to answer ( a i, .. , 1 ': Tour at the Cape of Good Hope, p. 120. MENTAL INACTIVITY OF SAVAGES. 201 * tbeiri. " Who has toucliod the stars with liis hands ? ' '' On wliut pilhirs do they rest ? " I asked myself. ' " Tlie waters are never weary : they know no otlier ' " hiw than to flow, without ceasing, from morning till '•'night, and from night till morning; but Avherc do ' " they stop ? and wlio makes them flow thus ? Tlie ' " clouds also come and go, and burst in Avater over ' '■ the earth. AVhence come they ? AVlio sends tliem ? '" The diviners certainly do not give us rain, for liow '"could they do it ? and wliy do J not see them with ' '• my own eyes Avlien they go up to heaven to fetch it ? ' "I cannot see the wind, but wliat is it ? Who brings '"it, nuikes it blow, and roar and terrify us? Do I '"know how the corn sprouts? Yesterday there was '"not a blade in my field ; to-day I returned to the "•field and found some. Who can have given to the ' " earth tlie wisdom imd the power to produce it ? " ' Then 1 buried my face in both my hands.' This, however, \\as an excei)tiv)nal case. As a general rule savages do not set themselves to think out such question.-!', but adopt the ideas which suggest tliemselves most naturally ; so that, as I shall attemi)t to show, races in a siniihu' state of mental development, liow';ver distinct their origin may be, and however distant the regions they iuliabit, have very similar religious conceptions. Most of those who have ei}- deavoured to account for the various superstitions of savage races have done so by crediting them with a much more elaborate system of ideas than they in reality possess. Thus Lafitau supposes that fire was worshipped because it so well represents ' cette supreme ' intelligence degagee de la nature, dont la puissance est »«' '«>■ fi -i * ■' M .. 1* 202 IIEIJGIOUS (llAJiACTEJilSTlCS OF ■ II ; '^i * toujours active' ^ A^ain, with reference to idols, lie o})serves '■^ tlint ' La dependnnce que nous avons de ' rima«^i nation et dcs sens nc nous permettant i)as de ' voir Dieu autrenient qu'en enigme, comme parle Saint ' Paul, a cause une cspice de necessite de nous le ' montrer sous des images sensibles, lesquelles fussent ' autant de symboles, qui nous elevasscnt jusqu'a lui, 'comme le portrait nous remet dans rid-■ » ■ ' 1 I •f ■ if. ' ^;| \i' 4 ""S ' '' * if '9 : 1 ^B < k ■i Bl * . ' ' b1 3 ' Hll > 1 ■J' 1' ' s. ■'.■ i ! '''9 ■ I ^'f- i ■ ■■ ■ 1 y; n 1 J Vfl ii « 1 1 1 L- 204 IJIFFICVLTIES OF THE SUJ!JFCT Although however, we find the most reinurkahle coiiiculences between tlie religions of* distinct race«, one of the i)eculiar diftieidties in the study of religion arises from the fact that, while each nation has generally but one language, we may almost say that in religious matters, (jiiot lunnhirs tot scntmt'uv ; no two men having exactly the same Mews, however much they may wisli to agree. Many travellers have })ointed out this difliculty. Thus, Ca})tain Cook, speaking of the South Si-a Islanders,^ says : ' Of the religion of these people we ' were not able to Jicquire any clear and consistent * knowledge ; we found it like the religion of most other * countries — involved in mystery and ])erplexed with * apparent inconsistencies.' Many also of those to whom we {u*e indebted for information on the subject, fully expecting to find among savages ideas like oui* own, obscured only by errors and superstition, have put leading questions, and thus got misleading answers. We constantly hear, for instance, of a Devil ; but, in fact, no spiritual being in the mythology of any savage races possesses the characteristics of Satan. Again, it is often very difficult to determine in what sense an ob- ject is worshipped. A mountain, or a river, for in- stance, may be held sacred either as an actual Deity or merely as his abode ; and in the same way a statue may be actually worshipped as a god, or merely reverenced as representing the Divinity. To a great extent, moreover, these difficidties arise from the fact that when man, either by natural progress or the influence of a more advanced race, rises to the ' Ilawkeswovth's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 2G/'. CLASSIFICATION OF THE LOW Fit i? V.S. L>05 arise conception of a liip^her religion, he still retains his old beliefs, whieli long linger on, side hy side with, and yet in utter opposition to, the higher erec'. The new and more powerful Spirit is an addition to tiic old Pantheon, and diminishes the importance of the older deities ; gradually the worship of the hitter sinks in the social scale, and becomes confined to the ignorant and the young. Thus, a belief in witchcraft still flourishes among our agricultural labourers and the lowest classes in our great cities ; and the deities of our ancestors sur- vive in the nursery tales of our children. Wc must therefore expect to find in each race traces — nay, more than traces — of lower religions. Even if this were not the case, we shouhl still be met by the difficulty that tliere are fcAV really sharp lines in religious systems. It might be supposed that a belief in the imniortjility of the soul, or in the efficacy of sacrifices, would give us good lines of division ; but it is not so : these and many other ideas rise gradually, and even often appear at first in a form very different from that which they ultunately assume. Hitherto it has been nsual to classify religions according to tlie nature of the object worshipped : Feticliisui, for instance, being the worship of inanimate objects, Sabteism that of the heavenly bodies. The true test, however, seems to me to be the estimate in which tlie Doity is held. The first groat stages in religious thought may, I think, l)e regarded as — Atheism ; understanding by this term not a denial of the existence of a Deity, but an absence of any definite ideas on the subject. ■■^i s 1 "* 4 UUii UtlLiaiOSS AkJCOUUISG to SANCUOXIATIiO. "v J Ft'/ifhi.sm ; tlio ntiv/o. In vvliich iiian supposes lu; caii force the deities to comply witli liis desires. Naturc-ivor.s/ii/t or Tote nils nt ; in which natural objects, trees, lakes, stones, animals, &c., are wor- shipped. Shamanism ; in which the superior d(!ities are far more powerful than man, and of a different nature. Their place of abode also is fu* away, v^nd accessible only to Shamans. Llolatrf/, or Anthropomorphism ; in which the j^ods take still more com[)l(!tely the nature of men, bein;,^, however, more powerful. They arc still amenable to persuasion ; they are a i)iirt of nature, and not creators. They are represented by ima^^es or idols. In the next stage the Deity is regarded as the author, not merely a part of nature. He becomes for the tirst time a really supernatural being. The last stage to which I will refer is that in which morality is associated with religion. Since the above Avas written, my attention was called by De Brosse's ' Culte des Dieux fetiches' to a passage in Sauchoniatho, quoted by Eusebius. From his descrip- tion of the first thirteen generations of men I extract the following passages : — Generation 1. — The ' first men consecrated the ' plants shooting out of the earth, and judged tlieui ' gods, and worshipped them, upon whom they theui- ' selves lived.' Gen. 2. — The secoml generation of men ' were calleil * Genus and Genea, and dwelt in Phucnicia ; but when * great droughts came, they stretched their hands up to the f ; ic UI'JLiaiONS ACCOltUlSG TO SAXCllOS'lATUiK ii07 * lip.aven towards tlie Sun, tor liiiii tluy thought the t)iily * Lord of Heaven.' Gen. 8. — Afterwards other mortal issue vras he;;'()tten, wliose names were IMios, l*ur, and IMilox {i.e. Liglit, Fire, and Fhime). These; found out the way of gene- rating fire by the rul)l)ing of pieees of wood against eaeh other, and taught men the use thereof. Oen, 4. — Tlie fourtli generation consists of giants. Gm. 5. — With reference to the fifth he; mcintions the existence of conununal marriage, and tliat Usous 'consecrated hno juUars to Fire and Wind, and howv-d ' down to them, and [xjured out to them the I>l(jod of 'such wiUl beasts as had l)een cauu;ht in liuntinix.' Gm. G. — Hunting and fishing are invented ; wliich seems rather inconsistent witli the precedhig state- ment. Gen. 7. — Chrysor, wliom he affirms to be Vulcan, discovered iron and tlie art of fori^ini^. ' Wiierefore he ' also was worshipped after liis death for .'igod, and they ' called him Diamichius (or Zeus Michius).' Gen. 8. — Pottery was discovered. Gen. 9. — Xow comes Agrus, ' who had a mueh- ' worshipped statue, and a temple carried al)out by one ' or more yoke of oxen in Phtenieia.' Gen. 10. — A'illages were formed, and men kept flocks. Gen. 11. — Salt was discovered. Gm. 12. — Taautus or Hermes discovered letters. The Cabiri beloni>: to tliis veneration. Thus, then, we find mentioned in order the worsliip of plants, heavenly bodies, pillars, and men ; later still comes Idolatry coupled Avith Tem[)les. It will be Vr- t i " 1 ■ ■•• k L f, ■ .-n «i ■ M ■ ft- ; i 208 nELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE LOWEST RACES. i ( } observed that Siinchoniatlio makes no special mention of Slianianism, and that lie regards tlie worship of phmts as jil)()riginal. Tlie opinion that religion is general and universal has been entertained by many high authorities. Yet it is ()p])osed to the evidence of numerous trustv;orthy observers. Sailors, traders, and philosophers, l^oman Catholic priests and Protestant missionaries, in ancient and in modern tim?s, in every pait of the globe, have ccmcurred in stating that there arc races of men alto- ji^ethcr devoid of relif>ion. The case is the stronger because in several instances the fact has greatly sur- prised him who records it, and has been entirely in o[)[)osition to all his preconceiv^ed views. On the other hand, it must be confessed that in some cases travellers denied the existence of religion merely because the tenets wen; unlike ours. The (luestion as to the i>eueral existen'^e of religion an oiig men is, indeed, to a great extent a mat<^er of definition. If the uwav sensation of fear, and the recognition tliat there are probably other beii.gs more powerful than oneself, are sutHcient alone to constitute a religion, then we must, I think, admit that religion is general to the human race. Ihitwhen u child dreads the darkness, and shrinks from a liahtless room, we never regard that as an evidence of religion. Moreover, if tliis deliuition be ado[)ted, we can no longer regard religion as peculiar to man. AVe must admit that the feeling of a dog or a liorse towards its master is of the same character ; and the baying of a dog to the moon is as nmcli an act of worship as some ceremonies which hav^ been so described by ti'avcllers. - i mist AiJSExci': OF rfligion: 209 Even amoniy tlio hi<>liei' races we find tluit tlie words HOW deuotiiiu;" s[)lritiial things l)etray in almost all, if not all, cjises an earlier pliysieal ineiuiin«;'. In ' Prehistoric Times,' ^ I have (jiioled the lollowin<^ writers as witnesses to the existence of tribes without religion. For some of the Ks([iiimaiix triljes, Captain Ivoss ; '^ for some of the ('nnadians, llearne ; for the Cali- fornians, liaegert, who lived among them seventeen years, and l^a Perouse ; for nwiny of the lirazilian tribes, Spix and Martins, iiMtes and Wallace ; for Para- guay, Dobrit/hotter ; for some of the Polynesians, Wil- liams's Missionary Enterprises, the \ Oyage of the No vara, and Dielfenbach ; for Damood Island (Xorth of Aus- tralia), flukes (X'oyageof the Fly) ; for tiie Fellew Islands, Wilson ; for the Aru Islands, Wallace ; lor the Andamaners, ^[ouatt ; for certain tribes of Ilindostan, Hooker ;nid Sliortt ; for some of the F;istei'n African nations, liurton and Grant ; for the l>achaj>in KalHrs. JiurchcU ; and for the Hottentots, Le N'aillant. i will here only give a few additional instances. The natives of (Queensland, says Mr. Lang, 'have no 'idea of a supreuie divinity, the creator and govi'rnor ' of th(> world, t]ie witness of their actions, and their 'future jugc. I hey have no object of woi'ship, even 'of a subordinate and inferior rank. Tliev have no 'idols, no teni|)les, no sacrifices. In short, they have ' JiothiniT whatever of the I'haracter of reliuion, or of 'reliu'lous observance, to -1 mi 'i:\ *■•■ I ■■-vil .(' I . ij;< 210 ABSENGE OF BELIOIOX. ' " world." ' ^ He quotes, also, in support of this, the opinion of Mr. Schmidt, who hv^ed as a missionary among the natives of Moreton P>ay for seven years, and was well acquainted with their language. Mr. Ridley, indeed, in an interesting ' Report on ' Australian Languages and Traditions,' ^ states that they have a traditional belief in one supreme Creator, called Baiamai, but he admits that most of the witnesses who were examined before the select Committee, ap- pointed by the Legislative Council of Victoria in 1858 to report on the Aborigines, ' gave it as their opinion 'that the natives had no religious ideas.' It appears moreover from a subsequent remark,^ that Baiania: only possessed ' traces ' of the ' three attributes of the God of the Bible — viz. Eternity, Omnipotence, and Goodness.' 'It is evident,' says M. Bik,"^ 'that the Arafuras of ' Vorkay (one of the Southern Arus) possess no religion ' whatever. ... Of the immortality of the soul they ' have not the least conception. To all my enquiries on ' this subject they answered, ' No Arafura has ever ' " returned to us after deatli, tlierefore we know ' " nothing of a future state, and this is the first time ' " we have heard of it." Their idea was j\Iati, ^lati ' sudah (When you are dead there is an end of you). ' Neither have they any notion of the creation of the ' world. To convince myself more fully resi)ecting ' their wjuit of knowledge of a Supreme Being, I ' deuianded of them on whom they called fur help in ' their need, when their vessels were overtaken l)y ' Lang's Qut'en<]and, p. .374. "^ Jour, of the Antlirop. Institute, 1872, p. 257. ^ Loc. cif. p. 278. * Quoted in Koltl's Voyages of ( u ' relio no the Uoui'ga, p. Iu8. 1C8S. I'll s of [igion they es on ever now time Muti 'ou). f tlie ig'' I l[) ni n '■y ages of ABHFXCE OF RELIGIOX. 211 ' violent tempests. The eMcst amonf]^ tiiem, after ' havinf^ consulted the otliers, answered that they ' knew not on whom they could call for assistance ' but beufu'ed me, if 1 knew, to be so ♦•ood as to inform ' them.' ' The wilder liedouins,' ^ says J>urton, ' will inquire ' where Allah is to be found : when asked the object of •the question, they re[)ly, " If the Eesa could but catch '"him they would spear him upon the spot; who but '"belays waste their homes and kills their cattle and He also considers that atheism is ' the '"wives?"' 'natural condition of the savau'c and uninstructed mind, 'the night of spiritual existence, which disappears 'before the dawn of a belief in thini»"s unseen. A ' Cre-'^.tor is to creation what the cause of anv event 'in life is to its effect ; those familiar to the sequence ' Avill hardly credit its absence from the minds of ' others.' "^ Among the Koossa Ivatfirs, Lich ten stein'"* affirms that ' there is no appearance of any religious worship ' v.'hatever.' 'It might be the proper tiuie now,' says Father liacixert. ' to s])cak of the form of n-overnnicnt and the 'religion of the Californians previous to tlieir conver- ' sion to Christianity ; but neither the one; nor the 'other existed amomji- them. Tliev had uo maii'istrates, 'no police, and no laws; idols, tenq)l('s, religious 'worship or ceremonies, Avere unknoAvn to them, and "they neither believe iii the true and only God, nor 'adored false deities. ... I made diliuent en- ' First Footstops in ICast Africa, p. o'2. ^ Abt'okuta, vnl. i. p. 179. •' Lichton.-teiu, vol i. p. 25.'3. r2 i 'J .» i I'i '' '>'X Hr ' ■ ■ • > < ■ \ ^m\ ,.'»■ • i\ i 212 ABSENCE OF RELIGION. '* Wi ' ■' >j !ll II! V •* ' quiries, among those witli whom I lived, to ascertain ' whether tliey had any conception of God, a future hfe, 'and their own souls, but I nciver could discover tlie ' sliijrhtest trace of such a knowled":e. Their lan«»:ua<»'e ' has no words for " God " and " sonl." ' ^ Indeed, tlie missionaries found no word which they could use for ' God ' in any of the Oregon languages.^ Although, as Ca])tain John Smith ^' quaintly puts it, there was ' in Virginia no })lace discovered to he so 'savage in which they had not a religion, Deere, and ' bows and arrows,' still the ruder tribes in the far North, according to the testimony of Ilearne, who knew them intimately, had no religion. Several tribes, says Robertson,* ' have been dis- ' covered in America, which have no idea whatever of a 'Supreme Being, and no rites of religious worshi[). . . . ' Some rude tribes have not in their language any name ' for the Deity, nor have the most accurate observers 'been able to discover any practice or institution which ' seemed to inq^ly that they recognised his authoritj-, ' 01' were solicitous to obtain his favour.' In the face of such a crowd of witnesses it may at first sight seem extraordinary that there can still bu any difference of opinion on the subject. This, how- ever, a""ise3 partly from the fact that the term ' Jic- ligion ' has not always been used in the same sense, and partly from ;i iK'lief that, as has no doubt hap[)cned in several cases, travellers may, from ignorance of the * Raogert. Suntlisoiiiau Trans., 18G3-4, p. 390. - Hale's Etbnnirraphy of the p. ^^2•2. See also I'ritcbaid's Nat U. S, Expl. Exped., p. 200. Ilis oiy of Man, vol. ii. p. G08. ^ Voyages in Virginia, p. 138. ■' History of America, book iv. RUDIMENTARY liELIGIONS. 213 1: language, or from sliortness of residence, have over- look(;(^ a religion which really existed. For instance, the iirst describers of Tahiti asserted that the natives had no religion, which subsecjuently proved to be a complete mistake ; a'ld several other similar cases might be quoted. As regards the lowest races of men, however, it seems to me, even a priori very difficult to suppose that a people so backward as to be unable to count their own lingers should be sutfi- cicntly advanced in their intcllectiud conceptions as to have any system of belief Avorthy of the name of a religion. We shall, however, obtain a clearer view of the question if we consider the superstitions of those races which have a rudimentary religion, and endeavour to trace these ideas up into a more developed condition. Here, again, we shall perhaps be met by the doubt whether travellers have correctly understood the ac- counts given to them. In many casts, however, when the narrator had lived for months, or years, among those whom he was describing, we need certainly feel no suspicion, and in others w^e shall obtain a satisfactory result by comparing together the statements of different observers and using them as a check one u})on the other. The religious theories of savages are certainly not the result of deei) thought, nor must they be regarded as constituting any elaborate or continuous theory. A Zulu candidly said to Mr. Callaway : ^ ' Our knowledge ' does not urge us to search out the roots of it ; we do 'not try to sec them ; if any one thinks ever so little, ' he soon gives it up. and passes on to what he sees ' The Religious System of the Amazulu, p. 52. "\\ * , >- i V ^*- * •^ I ' '■■ ^ 1 1. ' > ' ■ ' , #. ' ■ ■■ 11 i ^ ■ i'i. J" iiLSiil 214 EELIGIOUS IDEAS AS SUGGESTED BY SLEEP I'^vA ' with his eyes ; and he does not understand the real ' state of even what lie sees.' Dulaure^ truly observes, that the savn^e ' aime niieux souuiettre sa raisou, ' souvent revoltee, a ee ([ue ses instituti' >ns ont de plus ' absurde, que de se livrer a Texaiuen, paree que ce ' travail est toujours pc'nible pour celui qui ne s'y est 'point exeree.' With this statement 1 entirely coneur, and 1 believe that throui^h all the various religions systems of the lower races may be traced a natural and unconscious process of develoi)ment. Tlie ideas of relitfion amonc. cif. vol. i. p. 3(10. Prury, p. 171. See al-^o pp. 170, Crantz, lor. rit. vol. i. p. 2U0. 272. ' \ I.. 5' 11 / 4< 5 K ;| T . ' . ; > ■ H ^ ■ ■' ll ■ ijl :, 1 1 Hill J. ^^ : 216 BELIOIOUS IDEAS AS SUGQESTED BY DUE AM S. Lastly, when tliey drcnrn of tlicii' departed friends or relatives, savages firmly believe tliemsclves to be visited by tlieir s])irits, and lience belic^ve, not indeed in tbe innnortality of tlic soul, but in its survival of the body. Tbns the Veddahs of Ceylon believe in sjnrits, because their deceased relatives visit them in dreams ; ^ the Karen- also believe that the spirit can leave the l)ody during' slei-p ; ''^ and the j\rani*an- jas (South 7\frica) expressly fi'round their belief in a future life on the sani fact. ' l*ersons who are ' j)ursued in their sleep l>y the image of a deceased 'relation, are often kno^^n to sacrifice a vieimi on ' the tomb of the defunct, in order, as they say, to '(..dm his disquietude.''*' Ag'ain:'* 'If during sleep 'you dreani of returning to your people from whom 'you separated a long time ago; and see that so-and-so ' and so-and-so are ha})])y ; and when you wake your 'body is unstrung; you know that the Ttongo has ' tak(>n you to your people, that you might see the " trouble in which they are; and that if you go to them 'you Avill find out the cause of their unhappiness.' Indeed, the whole chapter on dreams in Dean Calla way's treatise on the religif n of the K'lffirs is most i 1- terestinii* and instructive. vSpeaking of the Peruvians, Garcilasso de la Vega says,^ for ordinary omens they made use of dreams.' The Tonj^ans thou^'ht ^hat the souls of chiefs — for those ' l^ailov, in Trans. ElL. Soc., * [Tnkiilnnkulu; or, the Tradition N. S., vol. ii. p. .")01. of On-alioii as existing among flic 2 M'Mahou. Karens of the C. Annizulu, p. 228. Chers. pp. ni, 127. ''The Royal Comruentaries of ^ The Basntos, Rev. E. Casilis, Ihe Inoas, vol. i. p. IH.'}. See a].«o p. 2} 5. ^VuUke, he cit. vol. i. p. 310. KKlimiARE. 217 I of the common pco[)le were considercii to die witli their hodies — 'hadtlie ])o\ver of rctiirninuf to ToiiLjii t(^ iiisjiire '])riests, rehitions, or otlicrs, or to a})j)ear in dri'Mins,^ The Feejeeans^ also believe 'tliat the spirit of a iium ' wlio still lives will leave the body to trouble other ' people when asleej). When anyone faints <»r dies, their ' s])irit, it is said, may sometimes be brought baek l)y ' calling after it.' Herodotus, speaking of the Nasamones, says that when they wish to divine, they go 'to the ' tombs of their ancestors, and Jifter having prayed, 'they lie down to slee}), and whatever dream tluy have, ' this they avail then)se]vcs of.' ^ Again, savages are rarely ill ; their sufferings gene- rally arise from wounds; their deaths are generally violent. As an external injury received in wju* causes pain, so when they suffer internally they attribute it to some internal enemv- Hence when the Anstralian, ]»erhaps after too heavy a meal, has his slumbers dis- turbed, he aever doubts the reality of what is ])assing, but considers that he is attacked by some being whom his comj)anions cannot see. This is well illustrated in the following passage from tlie 'United States Exploring Expedition:'"* ' Some- ' times, when the Australians are asleep, Koin makes 'his a])pearance, .seizes u[)on one of them and carries 'him off. The person seized endeavours in vain to cry 'out, being almost strano:led. At davlight, however* ' lie disappears, and the man finds himself con\eyed ' sal'ely to his own fireside, j-'rom this it wc. cif. vol. vi. p. 110. mm ' 218 SIIJVOWS. a ' that tlie (Icin^n is here a sort of personlficntion of the ' nigliliiiure — a viHitation to wliicli the natives, from ' their habits of f^oi'^irif^ themselves to the utmost wlieu ' they obtain a sin)ply of food, must l)e very subject.' The Karens suppose ' that niglitmare is caused by an unfriendly spirit sitting on the stomach.' ^ Si)eakin«^' of the Nortli-Western Americans, Mr. Sproat says :'^ ' The apparition of ghosts is especially an ' occasion on "vvhich the services of the sorcerers, tiie ' old women, and all the friends of the ghost-seer are 'in great re([uest. Owing to the quantity of indiges- ' tibl(! food eaten by the natives, they often dream that ' they are visited by ghosts. Aftera sup})er of blul)ber, ' followed by one of the long tails about departed ' friends, which take place round the tire, some nervous * and timid [)erson may fancy, in the night-tiine. that ' he sees a ghost.' In some cases the belief that nillti possesses a spirit seems to have been suggested by the shadow. Thus, unong the Feejeeans,^ ' some speak of man as having two spirits, ills shadow is called "the dark s[)irit," which they say goes to Hades. The other is his like- ness retlected in water or ?. looking-glass, and is su})- posed to stay near the place in which a man dies. Probably this doctrine of shadows has to do with the notion of inanimate objects havir g spirits. I once phiced a good-looking native suddenly before a mirroi*. He stood delighted. "Now," said he, softly, " I can '• see into the Avorld of spirits." ' 1 M'Mahon. Karons of the G. Life, p. 172. Cht'vs., p. 104. ■' Williams" Fiji anil tilt' Fijians, '^ Sci'iie.s and Studios of Savago vul. i. p. 241. TIIUXDEU. till) The North Aiiiorican Indians also con.sidi'r a man's shadow as his soul or life. ' I iiavc,' says Tanner, ' lieard tlieni reproacli u sick person tor wliat tliey eon- ' sidered imprudent exposure in convalescence, tellin Tanner's t!ap(ivity, p. i?Ol. - Astley's (,'i)lleclion of Voyages, vnl. iii. p. !)!>, J'iiilioiton, vol. xvi. ]i. A.il. Hou aJni) Uiillaway on the lleli-ridiis Syst<'!'i of llic Amaziilu, p. IM. ^ Ni^er Ivxpt'ilitinii, vol. iii. p. 2l± ' Hale's Ethiioirrapliy of tho I'liiftd States ll.vpl. ICxp., p. i»8. ^ iJuiiwick's Daily Life of tho Ta.sniaiiians, p. 182. '' Tanner's Xari'ative of a Cap- tivity anirin;jr tlie ItidiaiiP, p. l.'iO. M • AiA '•: ■ •■(■] 220 SriliJTS UKCAUhl':!) AS EVIL iif; ».v Bt * I have nlrcjuly nicntioncd tliat sava^jfcs almost always ivpird spirits as evil hcin^rs. Wu can, I think, easily uiKlerstaiid why this should ])e. Amongst the very lowest rares every other man — amon^'st those slijrhtly more advaneed, every man of a ditlerent trihe — is regarded as naturally, and almost necessarily hostile. A stranger is synonymous with an enemy, and a s[»irit is ))ut a memher ol'an invisiMe trihe. The Hottentots, according to 'i'hunl)erg, have very vague ideas ahout a good Deity. 'They have much 'clearer notions ahout an evil spirit, whom they lear. 'helieving him to he the occasion of sickness, deatli. 'thunder, and every calanuty that befalls them.'' The liechuanas attribute all evil to an invisible god, whom they call IMurimo, and 'never hesitate to show their ' indignation at any ill experienced, or any wish nnac- 'complished, by the most bitter curses. They hav<' no ' religions worship, and eonld never be persuaded by the ' missionaries that this was a thing dis})leasingto God.'- Aniong the Mos(piito Indians there was no name for a snj)remc good spirit, all their ai)pcals were ad- dressed to Wulasha, the author of evil.'' Among the liongos of Central Africa ' good spirits 'are quite unrecognised, and, according to the general ' negro idea, no benefit can ever come from a spirit.''* The Abipones of South America, so well described by Dobritzhoffer, had some vague notions of an evil spirit, but none of a good one.'^ The Coroados^ of ' Thunliprfr. Pinkevton's Voy- ^ Scbweinfuvtli'sITi'arl of Afiica, ages, vol. XV. p. 14:?. Astli'v, loc. vol. i. p. 300. cif, p. odO. '•' PobritzliolTer, Ivr, cit. vol. ii. - Liclitt'Dslt'in, vol. ii. p. "'V2. pp. .'Jo, (!4. ' Biincrol't, loc. cit. p. 710. '^ Spi.v tindMartius, vol. ii. p.24:?. I ,' spih'irs inuiAuuiii) as cMsisa nisi: ash l'-ji I)i'iizll ' acknowlc*!;;'!' no raiisc of j:;oo. Astlev's Collocliou of Vovayos, vol. ii. p. 0(14. f: J,. '^1 '■I J ill : f o.>.> Sl'inirS Rl'XLMtDEl) AS CAUSING DISl'JASE. ■n: uri -,::* 0(1, i^'llVl! ' i)alni-wine, fruits, corn, oxen, go.its, hens, and ' otlier tilings necessary to life, as tokens of liis Ix ' ]>ut there was no persuading tliein these thing.*- ' from God. They said tlie earth, and not ' them gold, which was dug out of its bowels ; that tlie ' earth yielded them maize and rice, and that not with- ' out the help of their own labour ; that for fruits they * were obliged to the I'ortuguese, who had planted the ' trees ; that their cattle brought them young ones, and ' the sea furnished them with fi>-di ; that, hoAvever, in all 'these their- own industry and labour were required, ' without which they must starve ; so that they could ' not see how they were obliged to God for any of those ' benefits.' When l^urton spoke to the Eastern negroes about the J^eity, they eagerly asked where he was to l)e found, in order that they nught kill him ; for they said, ' Who but lie lays waste our homes, and kills our wives ' and cattle ? ' The following expression of Eesa feelings, overheard by Biu'ton, gives a dreadful illustration of this idea. An old woman, belonging to that Arab tril)C, liavuig a toothache, offered up the following prayei* : ' Oh, Allah, may thy teeth ache like mine ! Oh, Allali, ' may thy gums be as sore as mine ! ' Can this be called ' religion'? Surely in spirit it is the very reverse. Dr. Nixon, first IJishop of Tasmania, tells ^ us tliat among the natives of that country ' no trace can be ' found of the existence of any religious usage, or even ' sentiment amongst them ; unless, indeed, we may call l)y ' that name the dread of a malignant and destructive ' s[)irit, wliich seems to have been their predominant, if ' not their only, feeling on the sul)ject.' ' lioiuvick's Diiil}' Life of the 'lasiiiiuiinDs, p. 17:?. 'b '.> Of MA DXESS BE VEREXi ' El). reine and beneficent Gotl, H concc unter/ gion is a ' relioc'ion of terror and doo-radation. Hunted and ' driven from country to country by a sujjerior race, lie ' cannot understand how a Being can be more powerful ' than himself without wishing to harm him.' The Circassians^ and some of the Chinese** have also similar ophiions. Hence it is that mad people are in many countries looked on witli so much reverence, since they are re- garded as the special abode of some deity .'^ Savages who believe that diseases are owing to magic naturally conclude tluit death is so too. Far from liavini»" realised to theuiselves the idea of a future lif(i, tliey have not even learnt that death is tlie natural end of this one. A\'^e find a very Ji'encral conviction amoni'' savai»"es that there is no such thing as natural death, and tliat when a nuui dies without being wounded he must bo the victim of magic. Thus ]\Ir. Lang,^ speaking of the Australians, says that whenever a native dies, ' no m atter how evident it 'may be that deatli has been the result of natural 'causes, it is at once set down that the defunct was ' bewitclied by the sorcerers of some neighbouring tri])e.' Among the natives of Southern Africa no one is sup- posed to die naturally.^ The Bechuanas, says Philip, 'and all the Kaffir tribes, have no idea of [.-'ly nuui ' Aniiiil8of Kiival l^enj^al, p. IHl. 2 Kk'um), Alljr.Cult. d.Meiiscli., vol. iv. p. 30. •■' Trails. Kthn. Soc. 1870,]), L'l. ■' See Cook, A'oyage to the racilic, vol. ii. p. 18. ^ Loot mo on tile Aborifriiii's of Australia, p. 14. Seo iil.sn Oldlield's Trans. I'Ului. Sue., N.S,, vol. iii. p. " (Jliapiuan's Travels in Africa, vol. i. p. 47. rr! ♦ -'-"if I n y ri 1 ; -31 "i-i N! M:^ ii IS 221. BELIEF IN WITGHGUAFT. * dying except from hunger, violence, or witclicraft. ' If a man die even at the age of ninety, if lie do not d'*; 'of hunger or by violence, his death is im[)iited to ' sorcery or to Avitchcraft, and blood is required to 'expiate or avenge it.' ^ So also Battel tells us that on the Guinea Coast 'none on any account dieth, 'but that some other has bewitched them to death.' ^ DobritzhofFer ^ mentions that ' even if an Abipon die ' from being pierced with many wounds, or from having ' his bones broken, or his strength exhausted by ex- ' treme old age, his countrymen all deny that wounds ' or weakness occasioned his death, and anxiously try to 'discover by Avhich of the jugglers, and iov what reason 'he was killed.' Stevenson* states that in South America ' the Indians never believe that deatli is ' owing to natural causes, but that it is the effect of ' sorcerv and witchcraft. Thus on the death of an in- ' dividual, one or more diviners are consulted, Avho ' generally name the enchanter, and are so implicitl}/' ' believed, that the unfortunate object of their caprice ' or malice is certain to fall a sacrifice.' Wallace^ found the same idea among the tribes of the Amazons ; Milller" mentions it as prevalent among the Dacotahs ; Hearne" among the Hudson's Bay Indians. But though spirits arc naturally much to be dreaded on various accounts, it by no means follows that they should be conceived as necessarily wiser or more power- ' riiilip's South Africa, vol. i. p. ' Travels in South America, vol. 118. i. p. 00. - Advent uros of Andrew IJatlel, ^ Loc. cit. p. 500 Pinlieiton, vol. xvi. ]). ^(JJ:. See also "^ Amer. Urreligionen, p. 82. A.t.tli'y, vol. ii. p, ;>00. ' Lov. cit. p. 338. ^ Loc. (it. vol. ii. p. 84. ^ .. DISBELIEF OF NATURAL DEATH. 225 fill than men. Of this our table-turners and spirit- rappers give a modern iUustration. So also the natives of the Nicobar Islands were in the habit of putting up scarecrows to frighten the ' Eewees ' away from their villages.' The inhabitants of Kamtschatka, according to Kotzebue,^ insult their deities if their wishes are unfulfilled. They even feel a contempt for them. If Kutka, they say, had not been so stupid, would he liave made inaccessible rocks, and too rapid rivers ? ^ The Lapps, according to Klemm, made idols for their deities, and placed each in a separate box, on which they indicate the name of the deity, so that each mioht know it? own box.* Vancouver '' mentions that the inhabitants of Owhy- hec were seriously offended with their deity for per- mitting the death of a popular young chief named Wliokaa. Yate observes ® that the New Zealanders, attributing certain diseases to the attacks of tho Atua, endeavoured either to propitiate or drive him away ; in the latter case ' they make use of the most threatening ' and outrageous language, sometimes telling their deity ' that they will kill and eat him.' In India the seven great ' Rishis ' or penitents are described in some of the popular tales as even superior to the gods. One of them is said to have ' paid a visit ' to each of the three principal divinities of India, and ' began his interview by giving each of them a kick ! ' Voyajre of the ' Nnvara,' vol. ii. p. 66. * Loc. cit. vol ii. p. 13. ^ Klemm, ( 'ult. d. Menschen, vol. ii. p. ;>18. Miillor's Pes. de (oiites Ips Nations de TKiiipire liiisse, pt. iii, p. i)'J. * Loc. n't. vol. iii. p. SI. '' Voyage of I)iscovei'\-, vol. iii. p. 14. ** Account of New Zealand, p. 141. D'lJrvil)e'sY()yaj.rp de I'Astro- labe, vol. iii. pp, i'4i}, 440, 470, !^ f.h: . $'4 'I 'f " t ^ -. "' i ( >;-l fe«*; ' ^ 22C^ LOW WEA.'^ OF SPTfilTS. ' His object was to know liow tlicy would (leniean tliciii- ' selves, and to find out their temper, by the conduct ' which they would ado[)t upon such a salutation. Tlie ' ])enitents always maintained a kind of superiority ov( r ' the gods, and punished them severely when ^h<'y ibuud ' them in fault.' ' How far the ' reli<2,ion ' of a low race may difl'cr from ours we may see in the case of the Todas. Tlie\' can indeed hardly be said to have no God, but their con- ception of a Snj)reme 15eing' is tpiite without definition.' '-' So different is their idea of a l)eityfrom ours, that they regard certain bells, hatchets, and knives, as Deities ; also certain bufl^'aloes, in -whom the sacred character is heroditary ; and also the ' I'alal,' a man who is not a chief, nor a ])riest, l)ut who has special functions con- nected with the dairy, which invest him with .". divine character. Though he regards himself, and is regarded by them, as a god, he may again •:rjomc a man, if he can induce any one to take his sacred office, and incnr the tedium of the isolation which it involves. The neii'ro of Guinea bents his Fciich if his wishes are not complied with, and hides him in his waist-cloth if about to do anything of which he is ashamed, so that the Fetich mav not be able to see what is £>-oini>; on.'"' During a st()rm the ])echuanas cursed the Deity for sending thnnder ; ' the ^Mincopies ■'' and the Namacpias sbot poisoned arrows at storms to drive them away/' ■ .MnisliiiU's Tnila-.. p. IlU. ' C'lapinan's Ti.ivils in AlVicii, \')|. i, ]i. ■}•"). ■' Astlov's Colli'clion of N'ovfiL't's, •' !'ay, p. \7'2. Vol ii. ]». (il'.S. Tll;'!vi'\"> lv\p In till' '■ Wi.d.l's Xiitui'al lli-t:)vy oi" /.:uvi\ p. -'iTT. Man. v.il. i, p. .'li)7. LOW IDEAS OF SPTIUTS, •227 : " i .'iis' AVlion the Basuto (Kiiffir) is ou amnraiidino* expedition he ' <»*ivc8 utterance to those cries and hisses in which 'cattle drivers indulge wlien tliey (h'ive a herd before ' tliem ; thinking in this manner to jiersuade the poor ' (hvinities (of the country they iivq attacking) that lie ' is bringing cattle to their Avorshippers, instead of ' cominiif to take it from them.' ^ According to Thomson,- the natives of Cambodia nssumcd that the Deity did not imderstand foreign languages. Franklin"' says that the Cree Indians treat their deity, whom they call Kejioochikawn, ' with con- ' siderable familiarity, interlarding their most soleimi ' sj)eeches with expost'ilations and threats of neglect if ' he fails in complying with their requests.' The North Australian native* will not go near graves ' at night by ' himself ; but when they are obliged to pass them they carry a fire- stick to keej) off the spirit of darkness.' The Kyoungtha of Chittagong are Buddhists. Their village temjjles contain a small stand of bells and an image of Boodli, which the vilhigers generally worship morning and evening, ' hrst ringing the bells to let him know that they are there.' •' The Shintoo temjdes of the Sun Goddess in flapan also contain a bell, ' intended to arouse the G^oddc^s and to awaken her attention to the 'prayers of her worshippers.'^ According to the lirahmans,^ ' two things are indispensably necessary .H .' i.i ' Ciisilia' Biisutos, p. 2,58. •• l^cwin's Hill Tracts of Chiltii- ^ Tiutis. I'.tbn. Soc, vol. vi. p. pnii.ir, p. .'i!». 2o(>. '" Sinith's Ton Weohs in .Tiipnn, 3 Visit to the Polar 8ca.«, vol. iv. p. -1!). See also (hitzlalT"* 'rhrca ]>. 140. Voy.i^'es to China, p. 2?m. ' Koppol's Visit to the Indian ^ Dubois, The Pooplo (if India, Archipt'laiio, \.d. ii. p. 18l>. p. 100. ■; . '■ ■ >< , 228 aiiEEfC AX]> nOMAX CnXCEPTIONS. ''m V.4 ■ -il t 1 ^.'? ' to tlic sacrificer in porforming the ceremony : several ' lighted lamps and a bell.' The Shamans amoiiii' the Ton^iises and Biiniets, ac- cord'ng to Miillcr, ' font r(''S(mner le taml)Oin* maf:^iqne ' pour convoquer les Dioux, les Diables, et les Esprits, ' et pour leiH's rendre attentifs.' ^ The Tartars of the Altai i)icture to themselves the Deity as an old man with a lon'atory, not only to the moral character, but to the intellect and i)ower of their deities. Thus they were liable to defeat from mortals ; Mars, though the God of AVar, was wounded by Diomed and fled away howling Avith pain. They had little or no power over the ele- ments ; they had no foreknowledge, and were often represented as inferior, both morally and mentally, to men. Even Homer does not seem to have embraced the idea of onmipotence.^ Again, Diomed not only wounds Venus in the hand, but addresses her in most insulting terms : — Diiujrhter of Jove, from battleiields retire ; Enoujrli for thee weak wnnien to delude ; If WHY thou yeek'st, tlie les.sou thou shult learn feliall cau.se tliee shudder but to hear it named.^ A'enus flies to Dione, who says : — Have iiaticiicp, dearest child ; though much enforced, Uf'strain thine anger; we, in heaven who dwell, ■ 1. * ' >[iiller's Des. de loutes les Na- tion-; lie I'Mmjiire lliissc.pt. iii. ]). 15!>. - Jhid. ])t. iii. J). ]l-2. ^ li. le ihic. l-a l''inlandc. V(d. i. p. l.viii. ' Gladstone's Juveutus >rundi. pp. 11)8, 228. See also Miiller's Sri. System of Mytludogy, p. L^i>2. ■'• lliail, Lord Derliy's translation, v. -"t*?. ;ir '» SAVAGE IDEAS AS TO ECLIPSES. 220 Have much to l)ear from mortals ; and ourselves Too oft upon each other suflbrings lay. Mai's had hi.s sufferings ; by Aliieus' eons, Otus and Kphialfes, strongly bound, He thirtoen niontlis in brazen fetters lay : And there had pined away the God of War, Insatiate Mars, had not their sti^pmothor, The beauteous Eriboea, sougiit the aid Of Hermes ; he by stealth released the god, Sore worn and wasted by his galling chains. Juno too sufl'ered, when Amphitryon's son Through her right breast a throe-barbed arrow sent. 1 )ire, and uuheard-of, were the pangs she bore. Great Pluto's self the stinging arrow felt, AVhen that same son of tv^gis-beariiig Jove Assailed him in the very gates of hell, And wrought him keenest anguish ; pierced with pain To high Olympus, to the courts of .lovt, Groaning he came ; the bitter shaft re. iiai ed Deep in his shoulder fixed, and grieved his soul ; But Pajon's hand with soothing anodynes (For death on him was powerless) healed the wound. In fact, it may truly be said that tlie savage has a much greater respect for his chief than fur his god.^ This low estimate of spirits is shown in a very striking manner by the behaviour of savages during eclipses. All over the world we find races of men who believe that the sun and moon are alive, and who consider thiit during eclipses they are either (juarrelling with cacli other, or attacked by the evil s})irits of the air. Jleuce it naturally follows, although to us it seems absiu-d, that the savage endeavours to assist the sun or moon. The Greenlanders" regard the sun and moon as sister and brother : the former beiuu' the female, and beiiii»* constantly piu'sued by the hitter. J)uring an eclipsi; they think the moon 'goes about among tlie houses to 'pilfer their skins and eatables, and even to kill thos(; ' St" Huvlon's Abbeoluita, vol, i. p. IfiO. Duboi;-, loc. cit. pp. 304,4;iO. * Craiitz, vol, i, j), ■Jo'J. i;' '■-■nr ' ^■■^ I 1i 230 SAVAOE IDEAS AS TO IHHAl'SJJS. . • t; !:'}•- * l)CO[»lc' tliat liave iio( iliily oltscrvcd iIk; vuli's oi iihsll- 'iieiicc. At sucli times tlicy Iiidc awjiy cvciytliiiip.-. aii. i'l«, 'SyJ. ^ Lvc. lif. \o\. ii. ji. >i. Toil It', llistuiv ol' thu Canb1)v 't' VAh'inus ^(yr^^L\,s j.s to ijclu'sus. 231 l)<>l)rit/!»oiI'('i', iiiiiiL,iji(' that tlic >mi ;iii(l iimoii diiriii^Li' cruelly torn ^v do^s. with whicli they (eijpses are '1 ' t' '"ik that ti.e air alxiiiuds, when they x-e their lin'ht • livll ; attriljiitiiiii: tlieir bhxjd-red colour to the hite> of ' these animals. Accordingly, to defend thi'ir dear ' j)lanets I'roni tliose aerial mastiff's, they send a sliowei' 'of arrows up into the sky, amid loud vociferations, 'at the time of the eeli])so.' When the (luavcnrus, says (diarlevoix, 'think themselves threatened a. :th :,' 'storm, they sally out of their towns, the men irn, 'd ■ with their mancanas, and the women an<] !iii 'ren 'howling with all their 'night; for they helievc that, ' l)y so doing, they put to iiight the devil that, '■'♦^uided ' to excite it.' ^ The ancient Peruvians, also, during eclipses of the moon, used to beat their dogs in order that l)y their howlings they might awaken her out of the swoon into Avhich she was su])posed to have falicni.- In China the same idea has ])revailed from time immemorial, and from the reiun of Tcheou, I 100 15. C. a Court astronomer has regularly been appointed, whose business it was to announce any ajjproaching ecli[)se. The Court (and this custom has continued even down to our own time) then assembled, the Em})eror solemnly beat a tand)our, while the Mandarins shot arrows into the sky to assist the luminary which is eclipsed.^ The Stiens of Cambodia,'* like the Cambodians themselves, account for ecli])ses by the hypothesis 'that 'some being has swallowed up the sun and the moon ; ■I n ' History of I'araiiiiiiy, vol. i. p. (Jliiiioiso, pp. 'j:'>'-\. ;;o-'. Set; ;il>t '.'2. Set" iil^^o p. 20.';. ralliif;, vol. iv. jt. L'l'C - n. di- 1,1 \'t';^-a. vol. i. p. IS] ; ' .Moulioi's Truvol- ii» liulu- Martins, Inc. cH. p. .'Ii'. •' J)iot.. A-ti'''ii"iiii(' lu'liuiiii' it ( 'hiiia. v 1. p. -2. 232 VAUJvvs Ktrnoxs as vo eviai'siis. ifi. m'l n )\ 'iiml, in order to deliver them, they nuide n IriwhtAd ' noise, beat the tam-tam, uttered savage erien, and sliot * arrows into the air, until the sun renpjH'jired.' During an eclipse the Sumatrans ' also ' make a h^id ' noise with sounding instruments, to preveut one ' luminjiry from devf)uriug the other, as the Chinese, to ' frighten away the dragon ; a superstition that has its ' source in the ancient systems of astronomy (partieu- ' larly the Hindu), where the nodes of the mo(»n are ' identified with the dragon's head and tail. Tluy tell ' of a man in the moon who is continually em[)loyed in ' spinning cotton, but that every night a rat gnaws his ' thread, and obliges him to begin his work afresh.' ' In Eastern Africa,' Speke "^ mentions that on one occasion, 'as there was a partial eclipse of tiie moon, all ' the Wanguana marched up and down from Rumanika's ' to Nnanao'i's huts, sinmno; and beatini»; our tin cook- ' ing-pots to frighten off the spirit of tlie sun from con- ' suming entirely the chief object of reverence, the ' moon.' Lander ^ mentions that at Boussa, in Central Africa, an ecli[)se was attributed to an attack made by the sun on the moon. During the whole time the eclipse lasted the natives made as much noise as pos- sible, ' in the hope of being able to frighten away the sun ' to his proper sphere, and leave the moon to enlighten ' the world as at other times.' I was myself at Darhoot, in Upper Egypt, one year, during an eclipse of the moon, and the natives fired guns, either to frighten away the moon's assailants, or, as some ' Marsden's Ilistorv of iSuiualia, p. 104. AnHerson's Mis-.'^ion to >peJ 24;5. ■i \ Sumatra, '6. •' IJ. and I. Landers' NiperRxpe- dition, vol. ii. pp. 180, li^;). t.i; n IIELIEF IN anosTs. 233 he ral >y |)0s- tli \ar. ins, •me Huid, out of joy at lier t'scape from daii^i^vr, though I oUsci'ved llint the firin<^ began during tlie eclipse. I reserve to a future ohjipter tlie consideration of tlie ideas which prevail among the h)\ver races on tlie subject of the soul ; but I nuist here remark that one of the difficulties in arriving at any clear conception of tlie religious nystcm of the lower races arises from a confu- sion between a belief in ghosts, and that in an innnort'ii spirit. Yet the two arc essentially distinct ; Jind the s,)irit is not necessarily regarded as inunortal, because it docs not perish with the body. The negroes, for in- stance, says one of our keenest observers, Captain Jhirton, ' believe in a ghost, but not in a spirit ; in a ' present innnaterial, but not in a future.'^ Counting on. nothing after the present life, there is for them no hope beyond the grave. They wail and sorrow with a burden of despair. * Amekwisha ' — ' lie is ' finished ' — is the East African's last word concern- ing parent or friend. ' All is done for ever,' sing the \Ver^t Africans. The least allusion to loss of life makes their black skins pale. ' Ah ! ' they exclaim, ' it is bad ' to die ; to leave house and iiomc, wife and children ; 'no more to wear soft cloth, nor eat meat, nor smoke 'tobacco.' The Bongos of Soudan have, says Schwein- lurth,- not the remotest conception of innnortality. They have no more idea of the transmigration of souls, or any doctrine of the kind, than they have of the existence of an ocean. The Hudson's liay Indians, according to Ilearne,' a good observer, and one who had |3 i t ■■!■ ■t rM::' U ■' Burton, Trans. Ethn. Soc. ^ Lvc. <:if. y. Oil. bee alto N.S. VO], 1. f\-i:i Heart of Africa, v;)l. i. \\ ^04. anfr, p. I4(>. ■M L»;n JtEI.IEF l\ CllnSTS. I '/. ii m\ iun|>l(' iiicjiiis nf jii(ln-iuo'j liad no idcji of jiny lill; iil'tcr (Iciltll. Ill oilier cases tlie sj)irit is siip))ose(l to survive tlic ixidy lor a cerlniii time, iiiid lo liiiucr !il)oiit its nid idM)de. Ask the nc^To, siiys M. Dii Ciiaillii.' ' wliei-e is ' tlie spirit of liis ^reat-^a'andfatlua' ? lie says lie does 'not know; it is done. Ask liini about the siiiritofhis 'lalher or hrothei* who died yesterday, then he is full 'of fear and terror ; he believes it to be p-nerally near ' the ]»laee where the body has been buried, and ainonLi; ' many tribes the villa*j^e is removed immediately alter ' the death of one of the inhabitants.' 'J'he same belief ])revails amon<»' the Amaziibi Kallirs, as has been well shown by ^Ir. Callaway.- They believe that the s])irits of their deceased fathers and brothers still live, Ijecaiise they a])j)ear in dreams ; by inverse reasonini;', however, grandfathers are generally reody. Jiosman mentions that on the Guinea Coast, when ' any considerable person dies, they pcr[)lex one another ' with horrid fears, proceding' from an opinion that he ' a])j)ears for several nights sncccssively near his late ' dwelling.''' Thus it seems that the power of a ghost after death bears some rehition to that which the man possessed when alive. I'or the dead, also, the pr()S})eet is cheerless enough. According to Livingstone, for instance, the Jiatives ol ' Trans. J'lllui. Ir^dC, N,!S.. vol i. Aina/iilii. ISIiO. 1'. :](»!•. ^ Lk'simm, /cc cit. y. 10-'. -' The rkt.'liLri"Ut Sxticui nl' ilu FUTUh'i: I'li'i': jh:i'i:m>i:.\t n.v mdih: (>/•• i>i:atu. -j;;:. U'll \VY iitc lost Kill An<;"<>lsi Ijiiicy that, wlicii (lead tlicy will h«' ' coiuplctcly 'ill the jinwcr of tlic «lis('Mih(»(h('(l spirits, aiid look ii|)(iii 'the pi'osjjcct of loUu\vin-laiicl, pp. .'lis, i>')\. Trans. Etbii, Soc, vol. iii.p. l'51>. ' IJiinwiek's ])aily Jjil'e of the Tafiuiaiiiaiis, p. ]H4. •' Turnei's NiueU'i'ii Yfarf* in ]'"lyiicsia, p. 424. <-iill, J'luni. li.Cui.Lr. Sou. l^"-), p. o.i. " lirenclilfva Cruiso oi tln> M 'uraemia,' p. IW'J. St c al-i' JJiii- IdmV Dahoiiif, vol. 11. p. ]<)("). '^ Luwin's JliU Tracts uf Cliitta- froiiiT, ]v '^t. ■' iiichtwi-l'iii, Mil. ii. \'. '>1. '" (iill,M\l!icnriln.'Suuaira' ilir, p. 1(1-' .!■ ; ^\- ^. ■ .■!.{■ 236 BELIEF IN THE PLURALITY OP SOULS. 8 'lii 1 ! m 1 .^: .^"1 Avlio was eaten was destroyed, botli body and spiiit. The same idea evidently influenced the Californian who, as recorded by "Sir. Gibbs, did not dispute the im- mortality of tliC whites who buried their dead, l)ut could not believe the same of his own people, because they were in the habit of burning them.^ In these cases it Avill be observed that the existence of the ghost depends upon the manner of death mirl the mode of burial. This is no doubt absurd, but it is not illogical. The savage's idea of a sjiirit is s-omething ethereal indeed, but not altogetlier immateriril, and con- sequently it may be injured by violence. Some races believe in ghosts of the living, as well as of the dead. For instance, the Feejeeans- believe 'that the spirit of ' a man who still lives will leave the body to trouble ' other people when asleep. When anyone faints or ' dies, their spirit, it is said, may sometimeis be brought * back by calling after it.' Even wiien the ideas of a soul and of future life are more developed, they are far from always taking the dii'cction of our beliefs. Thus the Caribs and Kedskins believe that a man lias more than one soul ; to this they are probably led by the pulsation of the heart and the arteries, Avhich they regard as evidences of independ- ent life. Thus also they account for inconsistencies of behaviour. The belief in ghosts, then, is essentially different from our notions of ti future life. Ghosts are mortal, they haunt burial-gi'ounds and hover round their own graves. Even when a higher stage has been gained, the V c 01 ' Solioolcrnl'l'!- Iiicliau TiiLc.'r , jit. iii. \\ lor. Fiji and the Fijiany, vol. i. p. :,'l-'. the '), '■ A.-^lley's ('(illivtioii of Voyiiu'e.a, vol. ii. p. (!74. ' Abbeoliiita, \ 1. i. p. Iss. ^t ;;i i: !:■ ;' ? 1^ M '4ti i ' u h I'M ^ ' m if ^Ijli 2:].s BIVIXATTOX. bone is i)lncG(l in tlic fire luid the iiitiire is indicated V'^' tlie arrang'enient of tlie cracks (figs. 1')-17). The same custom exists amon^'tlie Lapps, the Mong'ols^ and Toi^mises'"^ of Siberia, tlie Afl'g'lians,'' tlie l>edonins, and even in our own coiuitry.' The lines vary of course _i;i'eatly; still, there arc certain principal cracks which usually occur. The accompanying' fio-nres of Kalmuck SU()UT.I)i;U-HLAl)ES I'REPAllEI) I'OR DIVTNATIOX. (Klenini, Ciiltuvji-. dor Meuschhoit, vol. iii. p. 200.) s])ecimens are copied from Klemn, Avho ex])lains, after Pallas, the meaning* of the various lines. ' Klcnun, Cult. (Ut Moiiscli., vul. cliisbiii, vol. iii. p. o.'U. iii. p. Ittlt. ' Tvlor'.s Piimitive Ciiltiiro, vol. - Miiller'.s Dos. do toutcs los ii, )). 11;!. Jlraiul's Pop. Aiit,, V'll. Niii. dc ri^iiip. IJiissc, pi. iii. ]). Ki;'.. iii. p. .'J.'l'.t. Foi'Ik'.'s Le.'^lic i'lurlv ' .Mii.-s.iii's .luiinifvs ill r.o'.oo- lliu'i'.- dl' Soulluad, Vol. ii. p. I'l'l. line DTVlXATrOX. •J;!'.t Otlicr Yakuts profess to iurctell the I'utnre by tlio lines of the palm of tlic liaiid.' Tlie Chipewyans of Xortli Ameriea, also make their ina<^"ic (lrawin<4's on slioulder-hlades, wliieli tliey tlieii throw into the lire.- A\ illianis''(leseril)es various modes of divination practised in Fe(;jee. C; Calh f anon laiiaway j^ives an interestmg' accoinit divination as ])ractised among' the Zulus, and mentions one ease in which the persons enquiring of tlie magician gave him no clue to the answer they expected, upon which he gravely told them tliat ' they did not know • liOAV to encjuire of a diviner,' so he would send his servant to hear tlieir case, and pnt the enipiiries for them: an anuising illustration of the manner in which })eople allow themselves to be deceived.'^ Dr. Anderson mentions a similar illustration from AVest Ynnan."' ' Three men had gone to the Kakhyen ' liills, and a report having reached their families that ' one of them had died, the old hau's were decidini>' • upon the truth of the rumour, and d termining Avhich 'of the men it was who had passed into Natland. To 'arrive at this, they had taken, for each of the men 'whose fates were to be determined, a small piece of 'cotton-wool, and strung it thi'ough the eye of a needle ; • and giving to each a special mark and the name of a 'man, they liad let the needles gently into the water, in 'which they were suspended by the cotton float, it 'takes some time before the cotton is so thoronghly 1 1 (.» ' -Miillm's ]'>i'-i. (Ic toiit('>; Ifs lands, vnl. ii. p, -J'-')'.). X;it. . IJus.^r, jii. iii. |i. Ki-!, ' IJfli;jiniis Sy.-iein of the Aiiia- ■' TauKi.)"-' Narrative, p. H'l'. /nlii. pt. iii. p. ."SL'S. '■ Fiji ar.d liic lMJi:ii;.~, Mil. i. ]i, ' I'.vpcii. \n W.-trvii Vuiiaii. {>. ■.':.'N. S, .. ,ih(; M;iviiit;r'~ 'I'^'M-'a 1.-- -'■•!. ■A.\ li itri-. i i '( \ \ m I. . .Kj < 1 1 ;!i Iti li 240 SOliCERY. ■ ' wetted as to sink, l)ut tlie needle whicli first drops to 'the l)ottoin consigns the unfortunate whose name it ' bears to the huid of forgetfuhiess.' When tlie Zulu soldiers ^o to battle, their wives hang up ag'ainst the walls of their huts ' a simple uint 'of rushes which they have themselves plaited. As ' long as that casts a little shade upon the wall, the 'credulous w >man believes that her husband is safe; ' but when it ceases to do so the sight of it is produc- ' tive only of grief.' ^ In New Zealand, before a warlike expedition is undertaken, the natives sometimes plant sticks in the ground in two rows, one of whicli denotes their own party, the other that of the enemy. If the wind blows the enemy's sticks backwards, they will be defeated ; if forwards, they will be victorious ; if obliquely, tiie expedition will be indecisive. The same criterion is applied to their own sticks.'-^ This is a case of divination, but from it to sorcery is a short and obvious step. When once it is granted that the fall of a stick certainly preludes that of the j)erson it represents, it follows that by upsetting the stick his death can be caused. We find a very similar idea in the AVestern High- lands of Scotland. In the ' Sea jMaiden ' a mermaid appears to a fisherman, and gives him three seeds, ■'vhicii are to produce three trees, which 'will be a .:i^";n, ' vvb-n one of the sons dies, one of tiic trees will 'wither; nid ^mi.s accordingly took ]»lace.'^ A sup- of ' AiV'riiss(>t'~ 'I'diu' to the Cajto '< i.i) i irnp»>, j). 14.'5. •' N dU''>^ Xi-w Zealand, \i. '••I, ■' raniplx'llV Tales of the \N'est I{i;j!ilaiul^, vdl. i. p. 71. IS the the isi'ii- ?ecls, •i"']i, wii sin NW.^t SiHiCI'JIi'Y. 241 ])Osc(l prophet of tlie Shawnees (Xortli Aiiicric!i) sent won! to TaiiiHT tliat tlie fli'e in liis loduc was inti- mately connected witli liis lite. ' Henceforth,' saierishes or decays, so the igour 'and spirits of the person they have a desigi u])on 'will fail and decay.' N' Feejee' 'one nio;le of terat- ' ing is to bury a cocoa-nut, with the eye upwards, 'beneath tlie temple hearth, on which a fii'i ^ kej)t 'constantly burning; and as tln' life of i nut is 'destroyed, so the liealtn ol' the person it i-epresents 'will fail, till death eiisue>. At Matuku tluri; is a ' UTove sacred to the u'od Tokalau. tl»e wind. The ' })riest promises the